Boyhood is literally stunning. Not in an artsy, quirky, trying too hard kind of way. It's authentic and raw and draws you in so that your whole life just seems like another random assortment of moments that we'll never make any sense out of. There was no story, no moral, or reason, or judgement. Shit happens, sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad. People take a role throughout the movie, some disappear suddenly and never reappear and some come back one day into Mason's life totally unexpectedly. The actors don't overplay dramatic scenes, it's a drama in that you feel life is just continuing for the time that the camera is not rolling. The story was just life.
Watching the actor who plays Mason, Ellar Coltrane, grow up in every sense of the word is so real it's disconcerting. The film was shot at 18 month intervals over 12 years. Richard Linklater captured Mason from the age of 6-18 years old. The transformation is awesome, and awkward, to watch. Boyhood captures Mason physically changing from a cute 6 year old with a button nose and total enthusiasm, into an awkward teenager to becoming a confident stoner college student studying photography.
His voice changes, his jaw lengthens, he goes through acne and the bit where boys grow their hair long and then one parent or another forces them to cut it under protest, the phase where his limbs are too long for his body, the dreaded chubby phase and the bit where his vocal chords flutter and stutter until they deepen and settle.
It made me think of my two little brothers. Every phase I remember (the bit with the horrible long hair and the difference it made when they were forced to cut it made me laugh) even bits they've forgotten. Somehow Linklater captured these universal moments that live in every older sibling and Mother's memory of the boys they watched grow up.
The difference about Boyhood is that this is not a movie illustrating still snapshots of someone growing older to show the aging process itself. It's about capturing moments throughout time and the piercing realisation of the rate of speed that these moments pass us by.
It's profound and it's brilliant. It's about nothing and everything. It's subtle and it's completely raw. One thing for certain: It's 100% worth the time to watch it.
Watching the actor who plays Mason, Ellar Coltrane, grow up in every sense of the word is so real it's disconcerting. The film was shot at 18 month intervals over 12 years. Richard Linklater captured Mason from the age of 6-18 years old. The transformation is awesome, and awkward, to watch. Boyhood captures Mason physically changing from a cute 6 year old with a button nose and total enthusiasm, into an awkward teenager to becoming a confident stoner college student studying photography.
His voice changes, his jaw lengthens, he goes through acne and the bit where boys grow their hair long and then one parent or another forces them to cut it under protest, the phase where his limbs are too long for his body, the dreaded chubby phase and the bit where his vocal chords flutter and stutter until they deepen and settle.
It made me think of my two little brothers. Every phase I remember (the bit with the horrible long hair and the difference it made when they were forced to cut it made me laugh) even bits they've forgotten. Somehow Linklater captured these universal moments that live in every older sibling and Mother's memory of the boys they watched grow up.
The difference about Boyhood is that this is not a movie illustrating still snapshots of someone growing older to show the aging process itself. It's about capturing moments throughout time and the piercing realisation of the rate of speed that these moments pass us by.
It's profound and it's brilliant. It's about nothing and everything. It's subtle and it's completely raw. One thing for certain: It's 100% worth the time to watch it.
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