A thumping triumph of creative vision and a landmark in modern cinema
 |
| Boyhood (2014) - By Richard Linklater |
Our Rating: 9.0
IMDb Ratings: 8.8
Genre: Drama
IMDb Ratings: 8.8
Genre: Drama
Cast: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke
Country: USA
Language: English | Spanish
Runtime: 165 min
Color: Color
Summary: Twelve years in the less than nuclear life of a nuclear Texas family is presented, focusing on the younger Mason's entire public school years. This phase of their story begins in 2002 when Olivia and Mason, who originally married because she was pregnant, are now divorced, the marriage which was destined to dissolve due to these circumstances. Olivia has custody of the two children, and when he is around, Mason has weekend visitation rights. Boyhood is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.
Boyhood is a 2014 American indie
film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The movie stars Ethan Hawke, Patricia
Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, and Lorelei Linklater in pivotal roles. The film
premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and also competed at the 64th
Berlin International Film Festival, where Linklater won the coveted Silver Bear
for Best Director. Richard Linklater's Boyhood is a singular exercise in
filmmaking that underpins the supremacy of cinema as the definitive art form of
the 21st century. Boyhood not only proves to be a filmmaking triumph but also
serves as a powerful treatise on life itself. On the face of it, Linklater's movie is all about America and, as expected, it does indeed offer sumptuous vignettes of
Americana, but, at its core, it's a movie about the universality of the
delicate relationship that a parent shares with his/her progeny. Linklater proves
that while ambition does come with a huge price tag, it can still be well
rewarded as long as one has the patience and the perseverance to back it up.
The idea, though, was pretty simple, but it was the ingenuity in execution that
posed all kinds of challenges.
 |
| Olivia (Patricia Arquette) reads to her children |
Actually, Linklater had
envisioned to make a movie about childhood. At the time, he himself was a
father to an 8-year-old girl and the very idea of parenthood fascinated him the
most. But, it wasn't going to be just another coming-of-age movie. In fact, Linklater
didn't even want to make movie to begin with, all he was interested in was to
paint a portrait of childhood. He thought that a novel would best serve the
purpose but then his inner creativity challenged him to rather use cinema as
his preferred conduit. Voila! In 2002, Linklater finally identified, after several
rounds of auditioning, a 6-year-old boy named Ellar Coltrane to play the role
of Mason in his highly ambitious dream project, the production for which was to
go on intermittently for the next eleven years.
 |
| Mason Sr (Ethan Hawke) as with Samantha and Mason Jr |
However, he wasn't just
looking for someone to play a part in his movie. It wasn't going to be a film
about a boy's life but the boy himself was going to be the film. That was
Linklater's grand vision. But, Linklater wasn't going to make a real-life
equivalent of The Truman Show (1998). So, basically, the deal was to shoot every year
for 3-5 days with the boy as well as the other members of the cast, and somehow
keep the constraints and uncertainties in check, hoping for the cosmos to
conspire with them in fulfilling their endeavor. Another major challenge was to get some production
house to financially back up the seemingly endless project. But, as they say,
where there's a will, there's a way! Boyhood is not only a triumph of
Linklater's creative genius but also a living proof that dreams do get realized
as long as one has the will and the determination to chase them hard enough.
 |
| Mason Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) goes out with Mason Sr. |
In Boyhood, Ethan Hawke (absolutely mesmerizing as the super-cool dad) and
Patricia Arquette (in a memorable performance that packs a punch) play the parents to Mason and Samantha (played by Linklater's
own daughter Lorelei). We get to witness the hardships that Patricia Arquette's
character faces while raising the kids as a single mother in the state of
Texas. Hawke's character is a vagabond of sorts who fails to come to terms with
his parental responsibilities. But, we see him becoming more mature as the time
passes by. Nonetheless, he does pay the children a visit from time to time (making good use of the weekend visitation rights when he is around),
often taking them on adventurous trips and exciting outings. In the meantime,
Arquette's character goes through two more failed marriages as Hawke's
character eventually settles down with a girl named Annie and is blessed with
another baby (perhaps, only to experience the hardships of parenthood all over again and
probably to improve on his earlier mistakes). One only wonders how different
the life would have been for the two kids had their parents somehow managed to
stick together?
 |
| Mason Sr. shares a light moment with Mason Jr. |
In Boyhood, the
conversations that the father has with his son and daughter are mostly
light-hearted but sometimes they have enough sense of gravity to make the
viewer think and even contemplate about his or her own life and the different
relationships that give it its meaning. They also raise awareness about various issues
that are plaguing the modern societies like teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, and the
ever increasing divorce rates. To an average viewer, Boyhood may come across as
a typical coming-of-age film wherein the young lead character witnesses the
loss of innocence while coming to terms with the reality of life, but a keen-eyed viewer can easily figure out
that, at its core, it’s as much about parenthood and human relationships as it
is about childhood, if not more. In its essence, the movie is as simple and
straightforward as it gets, but so is life if one only chooses to traverse it inch
by inch.
 |
| Mason Jr. takes his high school sweetheart on a date |
Overall, Boyhood is thumping
triumph of creative vision and an
undisputed landmark in modern cinema. Linklater, in his characteristic style, brings
us so close to these characters that they no longer seem like mere characters,
for we see in them an extension of our own selves. Linklater is one of the few contemporary
filmmakers who have mastered the art of storytelling, and whether it’s about
presenting the chapters from a great man’s life (as he accomplished ever so playfully
in Me and Orson Welles), or depicting a special day in the lives of a bunch of
high school kids (as he beautifully depicted in Dazed and Confused), he,
without fail, is up to the mark. Vintage Linklater, Boyhood's greatest
accomplishment is that it presents life the way it is, neither exaggerating it
nor trivializing it. Boyhood leaves us with that bittersweet feeling of nostalgia and love, which, while making us regret the mistakes that we ourselves made in
our childhood, also inspires us to help contribute towards creating a better
world for the posterity. A must watch!
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your valuable thoughts are highly appreciated!
Boyhood (2014) Trailer (YouTube)
Richard Linklater on Boyhood - Film4 Interview
People who liked this also liked...
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for sharing for valuable opinion. We would be delighted to have you back.