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| Courtesy of IFC Films |
Grading
is always a risky proposition, especially when I break out the exceedingly rare
A+. It comes with high expectations, which the movie might not live up to in
the eyes of some viewers. But I don’t think I have to worry about that with
Richard Linklater’s latest, a masterpiece (yes, I went there) 12 years in the
making.
The
filmmaker – best known for Dazed and Confused and the Before trilogy –
assembled his talented cast for a few days each year between 2001 and 2013,
resulting in an unhurried, 165-minute look at an ordinary Texas family. No car
chases and no epic stakes, just a fascinating journey through life with four
compelling characters.
In
theory, a movie like this could’ve been boring or – even worse – irritatingly
pretentious. But I was profoundly moved when the end credits started to roll
thanks to Linklater’s long-term creative vision, as well as his clear love for
these characters, brought to life through a remarkable collaborative process.
Ellar Coltrane plays Mason, who opens Boyhood as a six-year-old kid lying on the grass and staring dreamily up at
the sky. It’s perfect cinematic shorthand for the personality he’ll maintain
for the rest of the movie. He lives with his mother (Patricia Arquette) and
older sister (Lorelei Linklater, the director’s daughter), though they don’t
usually stay in one place very long.
His
father (Ethan Hawke) has been gone for a while, unable to face responsibility
because he’s still too much of a kid himself. Every once in a while, he’ll roll
up in his black Mustang to be the cool dad – taking the kids out for pizza and
bowling, then disappearing when it’s time for mom to make them do their
homework or go to bed.
Over
the years, we see the family change in ways both obvious (the kids’ striking physical
growth, mom’s terrible taste in men) and subtle (dad slowly turning into a
great husband and father) until a tall, goateed Mason graduates high school and
heads off to college. It’s an appropriate stopping point for a movie called Boyhood.
Wisely,
Linklater never treats the audience like idiots or attempts to pull them out of
the dreamy reality he has established. Instead of putting the year on screen or
fading to black to mark the passage of time, he trusts viewers to pay attention
to music, changing technology and other pop culture markers.
The
result is that when the family poses for a photo at Mason’s graduation party,
the accumulation of the years you’ve just experienced and the restrained
grandiosity of this project lands like a punch to the gut. (As the father of a
three-year-old daughter, it hit especially hard.)
The
phenomenal cast also serves to convey the narrative’s power. Arquette and Hawke
are excellent at demonstrating that adults can mature just as much as kids. But
Linklater really got it right with Coltrane and his own daughter, intuiting
that the kids would grow into thoughtful, gifted and attractive actors.
Movies
like Boyhood are rare, folks. The film opens exclusively at Atlanta’s Midtown
Art, but should be expanding to nearby theaters in the coming weeks. Make plans
to see it.
Boyhood is rated R for language including sexual references, and for teen drug and alcohol use.
Grade:
A+
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