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The Movie Boyhood

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Filmed over the course of 12 years, Richard Linklater cast Ellar Coltrane as Mason as we follow his growth and childhood experience as he learns about life and himself. It sounds like an incredible idea and Linklater does deserve approbation for taking this approach, but 'Boyhood' fails to work as a character study. In fact, 'Boyhood' really does not have much to say besides "life goes by fast".

'Boyhood' can sometimes catch on and get some moments absolutely correct. Having to make a barrier out of a pillow in long car trips with my sister or being apprehensive to your surroundings as puberty kicks in are all personal things I can relate to. But despite its incredible run time of almost 3 hours, 'Boyhood' does refuses to have the key moments …show more content…

One scene has the college professor flirt with Mason's mom, but it is glanced over and fast forwarded two years in the future where they are now suddenly betrothed and the families have integrated. WHAT HAPPENED? There is a lot of wasted proportional material. How did Mason's real dad react? Did Mason initially get along with his new family? The movie has a lot of priorities like this happen multiple times. They a dedicate scene about them stripping their first home from personal touches, BUT NOTHING ABOUT THE MOVING IN TO THE NEW HOME. Because 'Boyhood' does this so often it feels like a first draft of the script and this was just incomplete. I think the only comparison I can give this movie is 'Silver …show more content…

The two actors do great in their roles and more than deserving of their award-buzz. They actually evaluate some of the material because those big speeches that they give about life aren't what normal people say out of the blue unless they rehearsed it a dozen times. Those are eloquently speeches meticulously planned by Linklater. But the fact that they can make material like that work and sound natural is commendable. Without those two actors ‘Boyhood’ would be half the movie it is.

Despite its 12 years of production life time, ‘Boyhood’ really doesn't say much about life besides what I previously mentioned about how "life goes by fast". ‘School of Rock’ genuinely has more to say about life and emotional maturity than ‘Boyhood’. But the biggest fault about the movie is how after hours of screen time and spending 12 years with them, I couldn't remember any of their names. If this movie so desperately tries to be a coming of age story or a character study it kind of helps if we know these people are in a fundamental and basic

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