Boyhood (2014)

"A moving 12 years epic that isn't quite like anything else in the History of Cinema."

Directed by Richard Linklater
Produced by Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring, John Sloss
Written by Richard Linklater
Starring: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke
Cinematography: Lee Daniel, Shane Kelly
Edited by Sandra Adair
Distributed by IFC Films
Release date: 5 June 2014 (Germany)
Running time: 165 minutes
Country: United States
Budget: $2.400.000
Box office: $43.400.000

"Boyhood" is a coming-of-age drama film, written and directed by Richard Linklater. It shows the adolescence of Mason Evans, Jr. from ages six to eighteen as he grows up in Texas with divorced parents.

Cast

• Ellar Coltrane as Mason Evans Jr.
• Patricia Arquette as Olivia Evans
• Lorelei Linklater as Samantha Evans
• Ethan Hawke as Mason Evans Sr.
• Libby Villari as Catherine
• Marco Perella as Bill Welbrock 
• Jamie Howard as Mindy Welbrock 
• Andrew Villarreal as Randy Welbrock 
• Brad Hawkins as Jim 
• Jenni Tooley as Annie 
• Richard Andrew Jones as Annie's father
• Karen Jones as Annie's mother
• Bill Wise as Steve Evans 
• Zoe Graham as Sheena 
• Charlie Sexton as Jimmy 
• Barbara Chisholm as Carol 
• Cassidy Johnson as Abby 
• Richard Robichaux as Mason's boss
• Steven Chester Prince as Ted 
• Tom McTigue as Mr. Turlington 
• Will Harris as Sam's boyfriend at college
• Andrea Chen as Sam's college roommate
• Maximillian McNamara as Dalton 
• Taylor Weaver as Barb 
• Jessi Mechler as Nicole 

The only thing that I'd heard was that the film was shooting for twelve years - stunningly! That's indeed something new in Film History, I suppose.

Richard Linklater, the director of the film, is known for the coming of age comedy "Dazed and Confused" (1993), the romantic drama film trilogy "Before Sunrise" (1995), "Before Sunset" (2004) and "Before Midnight" (2013). To put it mildly, I hadn't seen any other his picture, therefore I may judge only for "Boyhood". Telling the truth, the film amazed me: despite its running time, I didn't consider that it was too long.

As far as I know, the project began filming without a completed script, with only basic plot points and the ending written initially. Richard Linklater developed the script throughout production, writing the next year's portion of the film after rewatching the previous year's footage. He incorporated changes he saw in each actor into the script, while also allowing all major actors to participate in the writing process by incorporating their life experiences into their characters' stories.

Ellar Coltrane showed his character in progress, from 2002 to 2014, as other members of the cast. It's interesting to keep an eye on how he grows up. In fact, his character doesn't seem like someone extraordinary that causes joy, however surprisingly. Just a boy. Just a life. And it's fascinating.

Advantages

• Ellar Coltrane as Mason Evans Jr.
• Patricia Arquette as Olivia Evans
• Ethan Hawke as Mason Evans Sr.
• The good plot
• The interesting idea

Disadvantages

• A little too slow moving in contrast to life

"Strangenesses"

• The film shows all steps to growing

Clue Moments

• Childhood
• Bouhood

Life. This phenomenon is fast and slow passing, happy and tragic, long and short, and all of these are at the same time. Astonishingly. The strangest thing of life is that almost nobody appreciate it before something bad happens. Only after losses people start enjoying what they have.

Why are we living? A familiar question, isn't it? Everyone has their own answer and every answer is right. I mean we all have purposes and dreams that make us feel alive. Self-determination is a hard but necessary work that's needed to be done. Won't you try?

Children grow up, parents grow old. Time goes so fast and "Boyhood" confirms it. Live right now, don't you want it? It's difficult but that's the single way to be in time, to take delight in each moment and not to waste a life.

Soundtracks

1. Arcade Fire - Deep Blue
2. Bob Dylan - Beyond The Horizon
3. Cat Power - Could We
4. Cobra Starship feat. Leighton Meester - Good Girls Go Bad
5. Coldplay - Yellow
6. Family Of The Year - Hero
7. Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
8. Gotye feat. Kimbra - Somebody That I Used To Know
9. Paul McCartney & Wings - Band On The Run
10. The Black Keys - She's Long Gone
11. The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??
12. The Hives - Hate To Say I Told You So
13. Tweedy - Summer Noon
14. Vampire Weekend - One (Blake's Got A New Face)
15. Wilco - Hate It Here
16. Yo La Tengo - I'll Be Around

Quotations

* * *

Nicole: You know how everyone's always saying seize the moment? I don't know, I'm kind of thinking it's the other way around, you know, like the moment seizes us.

* * *

Mr. Turlington: I'm worried about you, Mason.
Mason: Why is that?
Mr. Turlington: I'll tell you why: The images you're turning in, they're cool. You're looking at things in a really unique way. Got a lot of natural talent.
Mason: Thanks.
Mr. Turlington: Yeah, but that and 50 cents will just get you a cup of coffee in this old world. I've met a LOT of talented people over the years. How many of them made it professionally without discipline, commitment and really good work ethic? I can tell ya. I can count it on two fingers:
[Makes A-ok hand gesture]
Mr. Turlington: Zero. It's not gonna happen for you, Mason. The world is too competitive. There are too many talented people who are willing to work hard; and a buttload of morons who are untalented, who are more than willing to surpass you. As a matter of fact, a lot of them are sitting in that classroom out there right now. Hm? You know what they're doing? They're doing their assignments. Which is what you're supposed to be doing, but you're not. You're in here. Now, why is that? You're special, Mason?
Mason: No, but, I mean, the things you're talking about, like, work ethic or whatever, I feel like I do work pretty hard. I spend the hold weekend taking pictures a lot of times.
Mr. Turlington: You like football, Mason?
Mason: Not really.
Mr. Turlington: Yeah, I know you don't. That's why I've just assigned you to shoot the football game tonight. Okay? Starts at 7.30, I want you to get there early. I want you to shoot a full card, 300 images. I want 'em downloaded, I want 'em sorted, and I wanna see 'em very first thing Monday, okay? Wanna know why I'm doing this?
Mason: I guess.
Mr. Turlington: Who do you wanna be, Mason? What do you wanna do?
Mason: I wanna take pictures. Make art.
Mr. Turlington: Any dipshit can take pictures, Mason. Art, that's special. What can you bring to it that nobody else can?
Mason: That's what I'm trying to find out.
Mr. Turlington: Try harder. Hey, maybe in 20 years you can call old Mr. Turlington, and you can say: "Thank you, sir, for that terrific darkroom chat we had that day."

* * *

Mason: Dad, there's no real magic in the world, right?
Dad: What do you mean?
Mason: You know, like elves and stuff. People just made that up.
Dad: Oh, I don't know. I mean, what makes you think that elves are any more magical than something like a whale? Yoy know what I mean? What if I told you a story about how underneath the ocean, there was this giant sea mammal that used sonar and sang songs and it was so big that its heart was the size of a car and you could crawl through the arteries? I mean, you'd think that was pretty magical, right?

* * *

Mom: [Mason is leaving for college] This is the worst day of my life.
Mason: What are you talking about?
Mom: [Starts crying] I knew this day was coming. I just... I didn't know you were going to be so happy to be leaving.
Mason: I mean it's not that I'm that happy... what do you expect?
Mom: You know what I'm realising? My life is just going to go. Like that. This series of milestones. Getting married. Having kids. Getting divorced. The time that we thought you were dyslexic. When I taught you how to ride a bike. Getting divorced... again. Getting my masters degree. Finally getting the job I wanted. Sending Samantha off to college. Sending you off to college. You know what's next? Huh? It's my funeral! Just go, and leave my picture!
Mason: Aren't you jumping ahead by, like, 40 years or something?
Mom: I just thought there would be more.

* * *

Mason: I finally figured it out. It's like when they realized it was gonna be too expensive to actually build cyborgs and robots. I mean, the costs of that were impossible. They decided to just let humans turn themselves into robots. That's what's going on right now. I mean, why not? They're billions of us just laying around, not really doing anything. We don't cost anything. We're even pretty good at self-maintenance and reproducing constantly. And as it turns out, we're already biologically programmed for our little cyborg upgrades. I read this thing the other day about how When you hear that ding on your inbox, you get like a dopamine rush in your brain. It's like we're being chemically rewarded for allowing ourselves to be brainwashed. How evil is that? We're f*cked.

* * *

Mason: I just feel like there are so many things that I could be doing and probably want to be doing that I'm just not.
Sheena: Why aren't you?
Mason: I mean, I guess, it's just being afraid of what people would think. You know, judgement.
Sheena: Yeah. I guess it's really easy to say, like I don't care what anyone else thinks. But everyone does, you know. Deep down.
Mason: I find myself so furious at all these people that I am in contact with just for controlling me or whatever but you know they are not even aware they are doing it.
Sheena: Yeah. So, in this perfect world where no one is controlling you. What's different? What changes?
Mason: Everything. I mean, I just wanna be able to do anything I want, because it makes me feel alive. As opposed to giving me the appearance of normality.
Sheena: Whatever that means.
Mason: I don't think it means much.
Sheena: You are kinda weird, you know that?
Mason: Yeah? Is that a compliment?
Sheena: I don't know. Do you wanna be weird?
Mason: I mean, I don't wanna scare kids at the park, or anything like that.

* * *

Mason: I really like talking with you. I don't usually even try to like vocalize my thoughts, or feelings or anything, just I don't know it never sounds right. Words are stupid.
Sheena: So why are you trying with me?
Mason: I don't know, I guess, I feel comfortable.

* * *

Samantha: Why are you crying?
Mom: Because I don't have all the answers.

* * *

Mom: Your teacher said you're behind on your homework assignments.
Mason: No, I did them, they were just sitting in my backpack.
Mom: So, why didn't you turn them in?
Mason: She never asked for them.
Mom: Well, honey, she's not supposed to ask for them. It's your job to give them to her once you've finished.
Mason: Oh.
Mom: She also said you destroyed her pencil sharpener.
Mason: No I didn't.
Mom: Then what did you put in it instead of pencils?
Mason: Rocks.
Mom: Why were you putting rocks in the pencil sharpener?
Mason: Because I needed them for my arrowhead collection.

* * *

Mason: You know, Jim, you're not my dad.
Jim: No, I'm not your dad. You know how I know that? 'Cause I'm actually here. I'm the guy with the job, payin' the bills, takin' care of you, your mom, your sister.

* * *

Mason: [Finding his mom lying on the garage floor next to Bill] What happened?
Professor Bill Welbrock: Your mother had a little accident and now she's being dramatic.

* * *

Professor Bill Welbrock: You don't like me much, do you Mason? That's okay, neither do I.

* * *

You may see the trailer here.

Plot: 8/10

Entertainment: 9/10

Acting: 8/10

Originality: 10/10

Music and Sound: 9/10

9/10