Boyhood - 2014
Let me just be clear at the outset here: I wanted to dislike this film. I really did. I generally don’t like extraordinarily long runtimes in films, and I find film gimmicks to be as annoying as they are impressive. Double-whammy here! But, as this film progressed, it COMPLETELY won me over. Moreover, those two devices were intricately important to the narrative arc and profundity of the film’s conclusions. Let me try to it unpack this in a few words. For the first 75-90 minutes, my inner monologue went something like this: “OK, so we’re getting a lot of vignettes here. Snapshots. Lots of things are left unsaid. The plot progresses between them, and we are expected to fill in the gaps. Wow, Linklater’s daughter is the weakest actor here. By far. Ah, all the characters are getting older. Ooook?”
Then, the cumulative effects of the film’s scenes start hitting you, particularly as Mason hits adolescence. It’s becoming clearer that we’re quite literally watching this kid grow up. Then the three or four final scenes drop like a bomb. To avoid spoilers, I won’t quote dialogue specifics, though I found them to be monumentally insightful. Suffice it to say they are reflections on Mason’s graduation party and a dialogue between his long-separated, now world-wise parents, a discussion of empty nesting, a father-son talk on the nature of life, and a final theme statement as Mason’s college life begins.
It seems Linklater and Hawke are practically tied at the hip when it comes to filmmaking, and the latter really nails it here again. But, to me, Patricia Arquette rightfully deserves the best supporting actress Oscar which she was given. My hero just happens to be a single mother who, like Arquette, battled through work obstacles, broken relationships, and extreme levels of self-sacrifice to keep her kid on the “straight and narrow.” This hero just happens to be MY mother. Arquette’s portrayal here imbues that familial role with just the right touches of grace, brokenness, humor, and wisdom gained through life’s unpredictable ups and downs.
In the end though, the “gimmick” became so crucial to me because I felt the ground shifting underneath me as my own perspective changed. I began watching simply as a viewer, soon was a teenager and a son, and by the end, found myself reflecting (alongside my wife) on that crazy, nutso, wild, and crucial role of parenthood. How fast the years do fly by, and how quickly our kids do grow up? And mine are only 9 and 7! The vignettes are profound, not because they’re haphazard, but because they’re profoundly human. After all, as we reflect back on our own childhood and adolescence, what do we remember? Snapshots. Events. Not continuous timelines. We remember sweet 16 birthday parties, our own forms of rebellion, the music we liked, mistakes we made, and for those of us from “broken families,” all the strangely infuriating and blissful dynamics that arose from that arrangement.
Sorry haters…this is one of the best films of the year. Hands down.
But I still say Lorelei Linklater can’t act.
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