Favorite Moments: BOYHOOD

by Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

How I wish I could have filmed the last 12-15 years of my life, because I swear it often feels like I’ve done nothing, barely enjoyed myself, have made no progress, can’t think of a single anecdote to tell and the small significant moments of in-significances, just don’t seem to be stored in my brain.  But if I could look back at even one day of each year, I’m sure I would be so much happier with who I am, what I’ve experienced and how far I’ve come.

Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Richard Linklater

If you’re not familiar with this much anticipated, much discussed film BOYHOOD by Writer/Director Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Slackers, Dazed & Confused) it’s a movie that took 12 years to film. Not 12 years to get the greenlight or to write, but to actually shoot. If it were a documentary which needed to be researched and studied for this length of time, you wouldn’t question it, but a fictional story takes commitment from all your actors (Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke) and in the case of young Ellar Coltrane who plays Mason age 6 to18, it took the commitment of his parents, who couldn’t possibly have guaranteed their young son would still be interested in filming  a couple of days a week every year for all his formative years; after all, Linklater couldn’t keep his own daughter, Lorelei interested in following through with the project.  I wonder what he did to bribe her to stick with it, when she begged him to kill her character, Mason’s sister off?

This movie is for people who can really enjoy a less is more type of film.  If you’re waiting for major drama, major conflict, a clever plot twist, a kid who runs away from home or gets some girl pregnant, or worse, forget it. But if you can appreciate getting to know a family, watching hairstyles, trends and body shapes change through time, and as my friend said, “people getting through life like any other ordinary slobs” then be sure to catch Boyhood. – Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

T &T’s LAMB Score: 4.5 outta 5

Boyhood Around the Web

How Linklater keeps hold of these strands and textures is remarkable, but his ability to keep the drama as honest as he does is astonishing. As facial features and certain elements of personality grow and form, we’re still aware of their flaws. It’s amusing to see Mason issues finishing homework follow him throughout his life, but it’s notably perceptive to view his Mother’s trails in relationships. Repeat patterns of ill behavior follow and flow through the family in the same way that it flows through our own. The conflicts never feel bogged down or over dramatized, while every performance is instinctive no matter which part of the time they occur. As stated in other reviews, could Linklater have any clue at just how well Ellar Coltrane would carry a film that would span his adolescence? READ MORE The AfroFilmReviewer


LINKLATER: I was hitting 40. I had been a dad for about seven or eight years, and I wanted to express something about childhood. You know this now: when you have a kid, it puts you so much in the present tense with their lives, but you can’t help but churn through your own life at that age. It’s such an interesting refraction. So I was thinking a lot about development and childhood. I wanted to do something from a kid’s point of view, but all the ideas that I wanted to express from my own life were so spread out. I couldn’t pick one year, one moment…READ MORE Richard Linklater being interviewed by old friend Matthew McConaughey Interview Magazine

What we have witnessed in Boyhood is not just a clever concept for a summer movie, but the invention of an entirely new genre of art. I’m sure Tisch students are already picking up their cameras, filming their four year retrospectives. What’s the next iteration to come?… READ MORE 3 Reasons Why Richard Linklater is the Smartest Person in Hollywood by Jess Kimball Leslie Tribeca Film.com

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