Boyhood Review

1.5 Stars

 

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.

After watching the preview, I was hoping that the "12 years in the making" thing wasn't just a gimmick and that there was actually a movie worth all the hype waiting behind the title.  I didn't go in with high hopes and only predicted 3.0 stars, but I was honestly disappointed.   Boyhood is nominated for Best Writing, but it felt at times like a re-run of Saved By The Bell or an after school special.   The dialogue didn't feel real.  It felt forced and staged like a high school play.  The film is also nominated for Best Editing, but I found it difficult at times to keep track of time passing throughout the movie.  There didn't seem to be any consistency as to when time passed or how much time has passed.  And it often took a minute to realize time has passed and then to have to figure out who the new characters are. Boyhood is over 2 and a half hours long, but I could have done with about an hour less of this movie that bored me for most of it.  I'm giving it 1.5 stars as being barely worth renting and definitely not being a movie I would ever own.  I give kudos to Linklater for the ambitious project, but Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas took over 3 years to make with only filming seconds a day due to meticulous and innovative stop-motion animation.  Burton's film is still gaining new fans over 20 years later and is now both a Christmas and Halloween classic.  I don't think the gimmick of Boyhood will sustain it for long.  So, what movie will be on my mind next?  We shall see.