Breathing of childhood, softening of adulthood… Attempt of torture, remedy of nurture… Breaking of bond, Road to abscond…
A haunting image of child which theoretically distracts your wonders of grippiness and merriness. As the time goes by, the pursuit of happiness goes astray. You grow up with melancholy with alcohol supposedly a perfect substitute of water which may quench your soulless thirst. Dramatic and pragmatic!!
Boyhood is an absolute drama with 12 years of shooting on merely a $4 million budget!! By production, it is one of the longest movie ever shot by during of time. Most probably the holder of this unique movie-making record is by Jim Jarmusch whose ‘Coffee and Cigarettes‘ was shot in 20 years.
Coming of age, inking of page!! Lavishly simple study of a boy’s 11-year life. Beyond your expectations and approximations. The movie covers almost every major aspect connected or indirectly connected with life e.g., religion, music, camping, parenting, domestic abuse, teenage sex, breakups, cycling, use of telephone to cellphones or Apple computer to laptops, job complications, preaching, sports, or alcohol etc.
Boyhood is like a diary of an innocent child or a ladder not built on basis of success but upon hope and expectations. Those tiny ears which desires to avoid shouting of parents, those eyes which all his 11 years anxiously wait for one eventual hurrah… Boyhood is a journey of a brother and a sister and their sibling-hood, who take emotional steps in coming years. It is an original screenplay to an utmost height that the tiny lil brother and sister actually grows up with the pace of movie from boyhood to adulthood.
The only surprising minus of the whole movie is is truly is ————— the PLOT. I am sorry to disappoint you but yes, the only thing which do not impress me is the story itself. There is nothing fresh in the story. It is daily life experience of almost everyone, some of the stories tragically reach to the lowest point but story has nothing new to tell. The plot sums up to ‘I Know Right’.
So with such an ordinary story, what is so special about the movie to invest your 165 precious minutes of life on it? Is the actual growing of kids in the movie the biggest ‘vow’ factor? Is the movie overrated with the nature of its now being the highest rated movie in metacritic with most no. of critic (49)? Why has Boyhood won 110 awards worldwide so far??
I asked myself such critical questions and without being Newton, I realize that it is all about magnificent balance of technicality of 11-year movie-making and wonderful depiction of natural human life and behavior. The director Richard Linklater is like a philosopher and psychologist equally altogether because with every inch of grown-up scene, he defines the age of character in naturally creative and acceptable way. The mother of siblings gains and loses weight by time, even with time her breasts are augmented *oh my eyes*. Make-up, hair-styling and selection of dresses are fantastic. Dialogues have no limits, the lines vary with the situation and sounds the fittest on character of every age. Those scenes explains you life where drunk father-in-law emotionally tortures, where real father has embarrassing sex-talks with growing daughter in front of her brother, where mother breaks in tears and admitting to her son that her life was a failure, and many many more.
By cast, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette put a heavy-muscle of acting under their belt to beautify the characters and help the movie look more palpable. Growing up kids Ellar and director’s daughter Lorelei are the soul of movie with enough credit to their acceptance of change and growth of mentality over their roles. Judging their acting skills will be naive but plotting their lifetime one-role work towards heavy pull for any nominations will equally be wrong. Background score and selection of soundtracks and their filming is journey like a walk with a whistle.
As far as direction is concerned, I guess every award function should ignore recalling the nominations for ‘Best Director’ and blindly call Linklater’s name to the stage. To me this easily is one of director’s finest work ever. You hardly will see an inch of difference in 12-year direction as the movie was shot with an incomplete plot. The script was written every year and inspired from life experiences of participating major actors. Ethan Hawke’s character was based on his real-life father and Patricia’s role was inspired from her real-life mother.
Boyhood reaches to viewers of all ages and is unanimously acceptable to almost every viewer. Like I said above, the movie is a study of boy’s 11-year life. It is a must-watch and coming of all ages a generation-periodic movie. The movie is a wake-up call for parents and awareness-alert for the growing and grown-up kids.
Ratings: 9.3/10
Follow me on TWITTER @saminaik_asn
Sami Naik | Film Critic 