There is so much about this movie I could comment on, that
it’s almost over whelming. First of all...
what a concept!… but is it a gimmick? I suppose it could be like the movie Memento,
you’re either distracted by “the gimmick” or you revel in its originality. So here
you have them making a movie over a 12 year period literally taking a boy (Ella Coltrane) from
5 to 18 right in front of your eyes, not employing two or even three actors to
play a boy at those ever changing years. At one point there was an audible gasp
in the theater when the boy started walking to his locker at around the change
of 14 to 15. “That’s the same kid?”, we all thought.
In it’s artistry I would almost compare it to The Tree of Life minus the death of a child tragedy and all… but I would hesitate doing
that, because there are those, including me, that that might say that movie was
closer to looking at paint drying than a ‘paint’ing…Ha But because it was
filled with all these scenes that just cause waves of childhood memories to
flood in at times…. and it was the same thing with The Tree of Life. So conditioned by that tragic movie, I was watching the kid
in Boyhood…..and I would cringe. When the kids would do dangerous, crazy things,
as did I, as did we all? But ***spoiler alert**** nothing ever happens despite all the cringing… I survived… as
does he, but it’s kind of that “lack of Hollywood” drama that I’m sure some
people will find fault with in this film.
There is drama with the mother really picking some losers
over the years which I’m sure some people will try and point out as a “dumb
woman plot flaw”. But I think this story is partially autobiographical, and
that, the director, Richard Linklater grew up this very way, plus it is obvious the mother
is VERY intelligent, as she later gets her degree and a better jobs etc, but I
think you could tell she was always putting her kids first even in picking a ‘provider’
over a ‘companion’. So like many an auteur in film, their own life is a springboard
of settings… from the obvious nostalgic feel of Junior High and High School of
the near perfection of a movie Dazed and Confused all the way to even including
a ‘true story’ like Bernie. Not that
he had anything to do with the events of that story (although I think I heard Linklater
set up a place for the real Bernie to live now that he’s out of prison? )
anyway I digress… A movie like Bernie
is “autobiographical” in sense that the state of “Texas” is it’s own
character in the film and it’s Linklater’s point of view on all the different characters
and people that make up that state. It’s kind of like the way Woody Allen used
have “New York “in his films as a
character.
The other thing that will probably turn some people away,
but makes me love it all the more, is the way these interesting and intelligent
people can have really fascinating philosophical discussions as part of
everyday life. From Dazed and Confused with the kids getting stoned on the
football field to the ‘talk all night’ or ‘all day’ like movies of Before Sunrise
and it’s sequel Before Sunset (A modern My Dinner with Andre sort of
approach) to the totally ALL philosophical exploration of the animated
brilliance of Waking Life. All
these “smarts “ sort of creep into the movie too as the boy grows into a
teenager with maybe too deep of thoughts… but it plays so well with the mother eventually
teaching at college, the dad being creative, and spontaneously fun etc… they
raise a VERY intelligent kid in their own way and it’s just amazing. And the sister too, (the director’s daughter Lorelei Linklater)
grows along side her on-screen brother right before your eyes and is a joy to
watch.
I was going to talk a little about one scene in particular
but it goes along with another scene I had kind of forgotten about. I was researching the soundtrack (which I’ll
get to in a bit) when I started reading the comments on IMDb.com And while I
brush off a lot of the haters out there I saw one conservative getting all bent
out of shape about “Hollywood’s bashing Bush and praising Obama” etc… and
sometimes it’s like they were watching another movie. The Dad(actually "Mom" and "Dad" were never known as anything else in the movie) being a creative liberal of sorts
rebelling against his conservative Texas parents has a few choice words about
the so-called “Texan” Bush, and another scene has some house-wife was all gushy
about them putting Obama signs in her yard etc… and it was a fleeting glimpses of
something the Dad was doing to spend time with the kids and it was sweet and
funny… to be ‘offended’ is just like how Fox News goes looking for
trouble where there is none.
I’m guessing they probably had a similar problem
with the scene I WAS going to point out because I think it shows Linklater’s
true mastery. The kid has a birthday at the grandparents, he unwraps a bible
from grandma, and then grandpa gleefully gives him a shotgun. The “praise the lord and
pass the ammunition”, scene could be seen as making fun of these Texas caricatures,
and it IS funny…. but you might as well say Jack Black and Linklater where
making fun of religion when Bernie from “Bernie” sang those hymns. Because I
think there was some real respect for those songs. Here too he maybe poking fun..
but there’s still a real respect and reverence for all things Texan… for
instance after the birthday party he shows the family at church, and instead of
a fire and brimstone speech from some
evangelistic preacher, Linklater has the most pleasant pastor speaking in the
most down-home inviting voice and even though it’s almost a throw away scene, it grounds that whole section of the film and
then later the grandfather is teaching the kid how to shoot and the kid is
having fun… and so those ‘bible thumping, gun nuts’ are just people. That’s Linklater.
So yes, there is no plot, per say, and that’s going to drive
most people crazy, and aside from a few dramatic scenes of the “parade of losers”
to quote the boy at one point…. It’s a
movie with nothing but brush strokes of events leading to him being 18… and
then… The End… which, again, will leave
some people scratching their heads, but me wanting to cheer…. As I watched
the credits I anxiously awaited the songs so I could ‘relive’ things like remembering
the opening scene, of the little boy staring into the sky contemplating...life? and Coldplay is singing “ Look
at the stars, Look how they shine for you.”
and so there you are, about to take the ride of your life inside this kids head, ending with him STILL contemplation life in the last scene.
But back the music... while the years some songs were released, helped make milestones for ticking
off the years with Sheryl Crow soaking
up the sun as they drive away from the old house(2002) , to moving to the
suburbs of Arcade Fire (2010) But then
there’s also a scene like Dad’s “playlist” of the Beatles “Black Album”: his collection of Beatles and Post
Beatles for the son’s “education”, so that
when “Band on The Run” comes on... you know it's from Linklater’s (and
my)childhood (or the Dad’s) but it just elevates the movie into a contagious nostalgia and
love of the characters.
So all I can say this movie is SOOOOOO much more than a
gimmick… everything about it, is masterful strokes of genius that I enjoyed
immensely. As I said, I could go on and one about the “politics” the music, the
acting of Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawk or all the others that had to showed
up year after year to make this, but suffice to say…. Five Stars.
I have an Addendum: In another synchronicity of the character's/my/ and Linklater's life, is the one scene where the girl asks about the book he's carrying which was "Breakfast of Champion's" by Hoosier author Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. Of course having read at a pivotal point in my life too, and having just recently visited the Vonnegut Museum in Indianapolis, this movie reminded me how that book is sort of a "Catcher In the Rye" for modern day cynics. So another nice stroke in the masterpiece painting that is "Boyhood".
