Boyhood Preview

Director Richard Linklater's 12 year project has concluded in the Oscar-nominated film Boyhood.  Linklater has previously directed A Scanner Darkly, The Bad News Bears, School of Rock, Before Sunrise and Dazed and Confused.  This is Linklater's first time being nominated for Best Picture and Best Director; it's his 3rd time being nominated for Best Writing.  His previous 2 nominations were for Before Midnight and Before Sunset, which he co-wrote with Ethan Hawke who has also starred in many of his films.  Hawke also stars in Boyhood as Mason's father.  His performance has also earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination.  This is Hawke's 2nd acting Oscar nomination.  He was previously nominated for his role in Training Day.  Though neither Hawke nor Linklater have won an Oscar, Boyhood did earn the Golden Globe award for Best Director.  In fact, Boyhood has been nominated for 6 Academy Awards.  Patricia Arquette has been nominated for her performance as Mason's mother, and the film is also in the running for Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing.  

Boyhood is the literal coming-of-age story about a boy named Mason (Ellar Coltrane) as he grows from a 6 year old boy into an 18 year old man.  The reason I say literal is because Linklater filmed Coltrane, Arquette and Hawke for days at a time over the 12 year period.  We are allowed to witness Mason and his family not only go through things a normal growing boy would experience (love, divorce, step-parents, sibling rivalry, birthdays, graduations), but we also get to actually watch the family grow and age in this unique cinematic accomplishment.

There have been "coming-of-age" movies since they first started making movies.  It's not a new idea.  But usually it's about a teen or a pre-teen and what they go through in school, or with a love interest, or a family drama.  But these movies usually just limit themselves to a day in the life, or maybe a year.   It's about losing a bit of innocence or naivety, it's about having to grow up in a sense when solid, beautiful, vibrant colors all of a sudden have darker hues to them.  We've also seen movies that have spanned periods of time.  Mr. Holland's Opus spans 30 years, but their son is played by 3 different actors throughout the movie.  The Butler spans about 60 years, but uses different actors and lots of special effects make-up to achieve aging.  This is the first movie to cover this large of a time period using all the same actors to portray the same main characters throughout.  That being said, that's really all that looks unique about Boyhood.  It looks like it will have moments that make you laugh, make you sad, and make you reminisce, but all of the good ones do that as well.  I'm hoping the "12 years in the making" thing isn't just a gimmick and that there is actually a movie worth all the hype and nominations waiting behind the title.  I'm not going in with high hopes.  I'm predicting 3.0 stars.  I think it will be enjoyable.  I think it will be something I'd watch again when it's on TV, but nothing about the preview makes me immediately think this will be a movie I own in my home collection.  Am I right?  We shall see.