Especially Mason, the "boy" of the title. He's a first grader when the movie begins and a college freshman when it ends. He goes from adorable to precocious to pretentious -- as we all did as we grew up. I didn't always like Mason, but I always related to him.
Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke are his parents. They, too, age over 12 years. I've never liked Hawke very much before, and didn't at the beginning of this movie, either. But he's matured and become more subtle as an actor, and that really pays off in the later segments.
This movie has no real plot. But then, neither do our real lives. It's a collection of moments, and it"s these moments that make up our lives. Because so much of it is effecting and so much care has gone into it, I felt guilty when my mind wandered. At more than 2 1/2 hours, it's too long.
Have you watched any of the documentary series 7UP? It began in the 1960s and tracks a group of British children--every seven years a new "chapter" is released to update the viewer on what has happened to each person over the last 7 years. The last one came out a year or two ago, and the subjects are now in their 50s. Boyhood reminded me of this--except in the 7UP series there are no actors. It's a very fascinating project!
ReplyDeleteI am very excited to see this movie. What an interesting concept. I loved the whole "Midnight" series by Linklater and have been anticipating this for a long while.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting. Definitely not the type of fare for our local theater.
ReplyDeleteI think I like the concept more than I would like the actual movie. I think lots of movies nowadays are wayyyyy too long. Tell me the story in 90 minutes, please. Have a beginning, middle, and end that are crisp. Otherwise, I'm struggling to keep engaged. I envy you living in a place where the "latest and greatest" movies are shown routinely. I desperately wanted to see Snowpiercer, but it's not showing in our area.
ReplyDeleteI love the concept, I'll wait until it comes on Netflix though.
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