BOYHOOD (2014) review: "Life doesn't give you bumpers..."

12 years in the making...

BOYHOOD is a 2014 film starring Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. The film is written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film follows the tale of Mason Evans, Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) as he journeys through his childhood, from age 6 to 18, including all of the tough personal choices involving him and his family, making and learning from his mistakes then ultimately deciding what he wants to do with his life.

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Opening as the main cast member, the boy in Boyhood itself is Ellar Coltrane as Mason Evans, Jr. The performance given by Coltrane is for the most part good, not far from great. There are some slightly iffy scenes in the film, which Coltrane's performance feels odd and often unnatural as you can tell that the 12 year development cycle shows not only his character Mason grow, but you also see him grow as an actor and eventually growing accustomed to it. Thinking of his character in this way definitely provides an interesting layer to the film, even if it doesn't always benefit it. Regardless of an off-key performance in some cases, you will grow to love and understand Mason as a character as he finds out what he wants to do with his life, seeing some of his aspirations becoming true and some not. The experimental choice of having a literal coming-of-age story benefits Coltrane massively and to a certain degree, overshadows him. For a first time role, you can definitely do a hell of a lot worse.

Lorelei Linklater is Mason's sister, Samantha. In terms of performance, the same points and criticisms that I have could be levelled at the character of Samantha also. With this brings similar points to praise about her performance, by no means is it bad, you see her character grow with Mason, albeit not to the same extent of Mason as the film primarily focuses on the growth of him, checking back on Samantha shortly with each of the scenes. The interaction between her and Mason is pretty great, their chemistry and the film in general does benefit with the elongated production cycle, as the actors grow to know each other, their characters grow to be more comfortable with one another as brother and sister.

Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke are Samantha and Mason Jr.'s parents, Olivia and Mason Sr. respectively. Both give an equally exceptional performance and some of the best scenes in the film can be attributed to Arquette and Hawke, they truly do enhance the film. They both do a great job in giving the audience the feeling that a relationship was once there and what was once between them is now nothing but shattered fragments of a past time. It is similar in a way to (500) Days of Summer in that it is a romance where they don't end up together by the film's ending. They both mutually respect each other end go their separate ways, continuing their own lives. This is in turn also similar to Mason and Samantha, who both leave their parents to pursue their own futures and eventually grow their own families, potentially ending up in the same situation as their parents in the long run. Their characters demonstrate the mistakes that their kids should learn from, which they hopefully do.

The rest of the cast are serviceable are perform their parts adequately, they do the best with what they're given, with the exception of one or two cast members such as the character of Sheena, Mason Jr.'s girlfriend whose performance suffers from the same reason as both Coltrane's and Linklater's performances, their acting talent grows with recurring appearances over time.

"Who do you wanna be, Mason? What do you wanna do?"

The cinematography by Lee Daniel and Shane Kelly is decent, with one or two well choreographed tracking shots and long takes, generally focusing on a sharp, colourful image to perhaps accentuate some of the nostalgia that can be felt throughout the film, especially earlier on in the film, with the opening shot being a static shot of the sky and the clouds and it is quite stunning at times. The bright colour palette as aforementioned could be contributed to some of the nostalgia that you will most likely have for your childhood, the bright colours representing a once optimistic outlook on life. It can be flat, with the emphasis of the film being placed on the characters in the movie, the style to have is that there is no style.

The writing and directing by Richard Linklater is obviously great, being the foundation of the film, the glue that holds it all together. There are several minor issues that could be contributed to the film's script however, aimed mostly at the dialogue for the kids/teenagers within. This dialogue in particular is fairly cringe worthy, I recall at one point the film that a kid actually says, "True that". No joke. It feels out of touch, Linklater's attempts at replicating teenager dialogue, it feels exaggerated to the point where it seems intentional however, which would make sense, or perhaps I'm looking far too much into it and Linklater just wrote what he felt was appropriate. Hopefully not the latter. This is more of a nitpicky aspect of the film, but after all of the overwhelming praise I have seen for this film, no one has seemed to have mentioned besides from a select few. I'm not saying it ruins the film, but it does take you out of the atmosphere of what is otherwise a very plausible world. In some cases, you can feel that how the script was finished and altered until the last minute to adapt to the actor's lives, negatively affecting it in this specific area, but ultimately benefiting the film more than it harms it, as the script adapting to the actors' actual lifestyles instead of staying out of touch with their personality is far more important. It's a balance, the realistic approach to the main characters slightly harms the minor characters. Following onto the direction by Linklater, it fairs better than his writing, which was already good in the first place, it isn't necessarily comparable but the direction fairs better. All of the actors interact with each other as they should, with none of them feeling or looking lost on set as they do interact with each other and the world around them. It feels natural and at times improvised, which is purely speculation, I get vibes that this natural feel between the actors does give it the film a tender quality that comes with the dealings of a childhood. 

"You know how everyone's always saying, "Seize the moment"?..."

The score for this film leans towards the unusual side, as it is entirely composed of licensed music from various artists to represent each of the 12 years within the film, music that is popular within that time or music that is appropriate to the progression of the characters within their lives. It creates another layer of nostalgia for those who grew up within the same generation as Mason or even if you didn't. It fits perfectly with the film and is definitely an interesting choice instead of using a traditional film score, giving the film a more personal touch.

Overall, Boyhood is a highly emotional and touching film, held back by a slightly odd script and some questionable performances from initially inexperienced actors, but it ultimately builds up to be one of the better films of 2014, and by many others the best film of 2014, if not the decade so far. The film tugs on your heart-strings (in a good way) regardless of generation, it bridges the gap cross-generation for everyone to sympathise with the childhood tendencies literally being witnessed on screen as the coming-of-age story unfolds in front of you and you witness everyone grow, change and eventually mature on screen within the matter of 3 hours. It is oddly fanciful yet somewhat depressing that you witness 12 years of someone's life in such a minuscule amount of time, the formative years of our main character as he moulds into who he is and finally goes on with his life as an adult. After you finish watching this for the first time, regardless of its highly subjective flaws, it will most likely stick with you.

"...You know, like, the moment seizes us."