Title: Boyhood
Running time: 165 minutes
Director: Richard Linklater
Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke
Boyhood was shot in 39 days in the course of 12 years. In the early stages of production it was supposed to be several short stories featuring different stages of the kid’s life but ended up becoming a film. This way we see all the actors who started in 2002 age and, not only physically, but emotionally change and evolve, which builds a tighter bond between the characters and the audience.
With a very unique approach and a risky premise where the plot of the movie is life itself, Boyhood is captivating and every experience of growing up and every dialogue feels taken from real life and improvised and not part of a script. Also, great use of details like music and movies or even presidential elections to indicate the year they are in.
Casting a seven-year old actor to have him playing the same character over 12 years could have been a total disaster but Ellar Coltrane, who plays the lead of the film, Mason, carries the movie beautifully and we see him becoming a better actor as he grows up. Curiously enough, he even looks more like Ethan Hawke as the years pass.
Richard Linklater’s own daughter, Lorelei Linklater was really good as Mason’s sister, though at the very beginning of the movie, Samantha was so dislikable it took me a bit to sympathise with her later on. But she did an amazing job and was as much a protagonist as her brother.
Patricia Arquette gives such a real portrayal of a single mother trying to raise her kids and going through some difficult marriages that you feel so invested in her character and, especially in her last scene, you really come to care for her. I completely loved Ethan Hawke, who has worked with Linklater also in the Before trilogy. He was the most compelling character with all his flaws and still wanting to do the right thing and being a good dad.
Boyhood may be a long movie and not the kind you are likely to re-watch. Still, for a coming-of-age film that just tells the story of a common kid and is nearly three hours long, is impressively easy to watch and doesn’t feel that long. It has stablished a beautiful connection when the movie ends and you realize you’ve seen that kid grow up in front of your eyes in the past hours. Boyhood is simply a masterpiece.
9’5/10
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