A Movie Review: Boyhood

Boyhood. The movie starts out with five year-old Mason (Ellar Coltrane) staring up at the Texan clouds. He’s waiting for his mom (Patricia Arquette), who is talking to his teacher. Mason is apparently a bright kid, but just unfocused. He lives with his mom and sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), who is a couple years older than him. His parents are divorced (it sounded like for over a year) and his dad (Ethan Hawke) is currently working in Alaska. The family moves to Houston soon after this scene. The dad also returns from Alaska and relocates to Houston, as well.

From here, the movie takes us on a 12+ year journey over the course of around 2 hours and 45 minutes. And no, new actors and actresses do not replace Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater. This movie, directed by Richard Linklater, was filmed over the course of 12 years. Maybe you should read that again: filmed over the course of 12 years. Over this time frame, we get to see these characters develop and grow in fascinating directions.

Though the movie is called Boyhood, it really feels that at the beginning this movie should be renamed Family. For much of the early going, the more interesting characters are Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad got divorced largely due to the fact that Dad was too immature and young to handle a life with two children. In search of someone with a more disciplined life, Mom gets involved with two individuals who definitely know a thing or two about discipline. First, she marries and divorces a college professor named Bill Welbrock (Marco Perella); and later, for a time has (I believe as I didn’t see a wedding ring) a live-in boyfriend, Jim (Brad Hawkins), who served in the military. Unfortunately for her and her children, both are alcoholics. Mom also grows up with a desire to achieve, but ends up as someone who has a nice paycheck, but has become house poor . . . essentially ending up where she started, but just better educated. Dad meanwhile lives a musician’s life in Houston. While there, he slowly turns himself into the man that Mom probably would have wanted to marry: a man with discipline, a touch of the wild side, and definitely not a drunk. Dad also goes from a big time liberal who encourages his two children to put up Obama lawn signs to one who (dare I even say it) probably considered putting up Romney signs in the next presidential election – partially driven by the fact that his second marriage was to a woman that gave off the impression of being a conservative Christian.

During the middle of the movie, a title called Siblings is more appropriate. For much of the movie, until she leaves for college, Samantha is just as important in this movie as Mason. There is a real tender moment in the movie when Dad comes back from Alaska. He is in Mason’s room. Mason is showing him arrowheads and snake vertebrae that he has collected. Not wanting to be left out, Samantha comes into the room with some photos. The Dad tries the impossible, paying attention to both of his children. And though it is impossible, he does his best. Yes, Samantha is not the child who is ignored in favor of another. Neither parent has a favorite, they love both children equally.

In the beginning and middle of this movie, I call it Family and then Siblings, because in some ways I found Mason’s childhood life less interesting than the others in his immediate family. I’m not saying I didn’t like Ellar Coltrane’s acting as a child actor and a tween. I’m just saying I found myself connecting with Mason later in his life as he was in his high school years. He still had those early traits with him that you saw at the beginning of the movie where he was just a bit of a scatterbrain. But in other ways you saw his passion in life (photography) and that was thrilling.

This is a movie that grows on you. This isn’t a movie that digs deep into a brief period of time such as a movie like August: Osage County. You only get maybe twenty minutes worth of storyline per selected year in this family’s life. What this movie does do is give you the breathtaking landscape of an individual’s youth: the good, the bad, the banal.

Highlight: One of my favorite Los Angeles bands is Family of the Year. I believe the first time I saw this band was September, 2010. They were doing a residency at Silverlake Lounge. Their song ‘Hero’ is featured in the movie and I say it is placed perfectly. I couldn’t help but sing along as Mason was heading off to college to find himself in the state of Texas – and yeah, maybe I irritated my fellow movie goers as I sung along.

 Guess: Dad (Ethan Hawke) has a moment with his teenage son where he discusses his only personal growth and how it related to Mason’s Mom. Was this a moment where Ethan Hawke was acknowledging his own personal short-comings in regards to his marriage to Uma Thurman?

Complaint: During a drive to Austin, Mason discusses Facebook with his girlfriend. Ah . . . isn’t Mason a photographer? Shouldn’t the discussion have revolved around Instagram, which I believe based on the timeline would have fit.