Boyhood (2014)

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Boyhood (2014)

8/10

Starring

Patricia Arquette

Ellar Coltrane

Lorelei Linklater

Ethan Hawke

Directed by Richard Linklater

Boyhood is a project Richard Linklater made about a boy’s life from age 6 to 18. His desire was to capture a boy’s view of life growing up and his relationship with his parents. Normally what you will expect the filmmaker to do is to get casts, people who look like the lead to fit into the different age gaps.

Linklater went a step further he casted the movie in 2002 and shot the film intermittently until 2013, and with some superior editing by Sandra Adair (which she won an ACE Eddie Award for and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for the film too) Boyhood became a masterpiece. Linklater started filming without a complete script, adapting the script as the cast grew and incorporating part of their lives into the film.

Linklater wrote and directed this movie and his directing is one you will appreciate, the movie’s flow is steady and inviting you to see it through. He went all out to make sure his dream to make this film was done, by casting and retaining the same lead actors for 12 years and working with a serious small budget to bring this movie to life.

In Boyhood we see the life of Mason Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) as he tries to cope with divorced parents, Mason Sr. and Olivia (Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette respectively).

Mason’s also had to deal growing up, and his mother’s struggle to find a suitable partner for herself. Olivia got married three times and divorced thrice, in her defense the men were great to start with and soon became dead weight along the way.

The movie’s focus was on Mason, but much attention too was given to his sister Samantha (played by Richard Linklater’s daughter Lorelei), who had to deal with boys and rebellion. We saw Mason’s father grow up and become responsible and the pain mothers go through when they live their lives for their children.

Boyhood is placed in numerous critics list of best films of 2014. It also won numerous awards including both the Golden Globe Award and the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) for Best Film. Among the six nominations at the 87th Academy Awards, it received its sole Oscar for Supporting Actress, which went to Patricia Arquette.

Being a critical acclaim movie, it went on to make over $46 million dollars in the box office as against its $4 million production cost.

For me, Boyhood is another masterpiece production, one many will remember for time to come. If you want to see a good movie and admire the production, here is a movie for you.