Short Comment on Boyhood by Richard Linklater
I can’t remember the last time a film affected me as much as Richard Linklater’s Boyhood did. The movie stirred emotions I’d put aside or forgotten about for years, and toward the end of the movie I knew it was going to permanently change my life for the better.
As you probably know, Boyhood was filmed over 12 years with the same cast. Basically, you just watch a boy named Mason grow up. That’s it. There are no major plot twists — very few surprises.
Instead, the movie shows a series of authentic and generally mundane moments that are made all the more real by the fact that the cast remains consistent throughout the film. Because the moments aren’t heightened for dramatic effect, they conjured feelings from my own boyhood and I realized that in some ways I have wandered very far from that self. Watching Boyhood awakened parts of me I didn’t know still existed.
A few additional, random thoughts:
The film asks big questions such as “what’s the point of it all?” and then does a terrific job of not giving pat answers but also of not being absurd or cynical. The whole thing is hopeful without being simple-minded.
All the adults in the film spend their time giving Mason advice. Some advise out of love, some don’t. The few moments when Mason’s dad treats him more like a friend than a student seem to have the most impact, or at least these moments feel the most right.
The teenage conversations in Boyhood are purposely inane and wandering, but they’re so earnest that they’re full of meaning. The dialogue isn’t overly polished. These aren’t a bunch of phony whiz kids. They’re just kids, like you and I once were.
Richard Linklater also directed Bernie, another of my favorite recent films. Like Bernie, Boyhood is consistently authentic and ethical, and it celebrates the mundane like few other films I’ve seen. Also: both movies made me laugh several times.