**This thread is dedicated to spoiler heavy discussion of Boyhood (2014). If you haven’t seen it, get on it and add your 2 cents. The OP will be a series of hyperbole and gushy thoughts about everyone involved. Feel free to jump in if you feel otherwise. That’s part of the fun of discussing films**

Richard Linklater’s latest film is the culmination of a 12 year project that started in 2002. This is a hell of an achievement because Linklater’s notable films as of 2002 “only” included: Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, and Waking Life. This film should solidify him as one of the finest filmmakers working today and certainly one of the best of our generation.

Talk about putting all your eggs in one basket! Linklater cast Ellar Coltrane in the lead. Coltrane is a force in this film. As expected for a child actor he starts out so-so but as he gets older he only gets better. It’s amazing to watch a young boy grow into a terrific actor for the duration of the 165 minute runtime.

Patricia Arquette turns in the most honest, most moving performance in this film. She completely transforms into a single mother, protecting her baby cubs while bettering herself throughout the film. Arquette’s final scene is among the most moving scenes in any Linklater film. If your eyes are dry or if there is no lump in your throat you may be a robot!! =p My favorite scene with Arquette and Coltrane is when he came home and she busted him while he was high/drunk. She accepted/tolerated her son’s teen partying. That scene reminded me of the first time my mom caught me drunk while sneaking home. I thought I was going to get in major **** but she just told me to sleep it off.


Some may argue that Linklater is playing with nostalgia and moments everyone can relate to: getting drunk, teen pressures, homophobia, bullying, first love, self discovery. It would be reckless to accuse Linklater of using familiar devices to evoke easy emotions. The entire story feels genuine, honest and deeply intimate. I appreciate it when a filmmaker puts it all out there, completely exposing himself/herself.

Many pearls of wisdom come from the mouth of Ethan Hawke. “Life doesn’t give you bumpers.” “Don’t turn over the controls of your self esteem to some girl.” <—I WISH someone told me this when I was 17. Even as a grown man it feels like Linklater is giving me life lessons and insight on the path I’ve taken in my life. Hawke’s political commentary was heavy handed yet light in his delivery. Who didn’t laugh when they took that McCain sign?

There is so much to this film that I just wanted to write a few words to get the conversation going. There isn’t a false note in this film.

we'll see... it's not out around here yet.

Can't wait to see it

Saw this today. Great movie.

It's a little early in the Oscar season, but we may have a Best Picture winner already. Arquette's performance wins Supporting Actress easily most years.

Absolutely loved this movie. Nobody captures the beauty of ordinary moments the way Linklater does. He's simply the best writer of realistic dialogue there is. While a few of the vignettes focus on big plot points (leaving the alcoholic stepfather the biggest, obviously), Boyhood gets its real power in the mundane. An awkward conversation with his dad, getting caught drunk in high school, a bad haircut. You can practically see Mason growing in the moment, learning in small slices how the world works, and then the indelible impact of those lessons, however small, etched visibly into his character when we reconnect with him in later years. So by the time we get to the end, hiking out to a canyon on the first day of college, we see all those moments connecting and building on top of each other so that we have a fully formed and incredibly deep understanding of who Mason is.

Ethan Hawke is funny and earnest when he makes his appearances as the well-meaning but generally incompetent weekend dad. Ellar Coltrane is unbelievably expressive throughout. But Patricia Arquette was absolutely wonderful, desperation and fear of failure reading into her every movement. Like her son and ex-husband, she's learning and figuring life out as she goes ("I was somebody's daughter then I was somebody's ****ing mother" is one of those great lines that's still stuck with me a few weeks later). She makes a lot of mistakes, some drastic, but we always have faith that things will turn out alright because she won't allow it to go any other way.

A couple other unattached thoughts:
-IIRC, there were only two scenes that weren't shot from Mason's perspective: the scene where Olivia chastises Sam for not picking Mason up from school, and the scene where she tells the Hispanic gardener he should go back to school. Both (especially the latter) felt really out of place for that reason, and weren't overly crucial to the storyline. I wonder why they were included.

-I thought the Iraq veteran stepdad was an interesting character. The scene where Mason comes home late and the dad is waiting up for him was a weird one. It had all the foreboding tension of Mason's encounters with the first stepdad, but it didn't seem that poisonous of an exchange. Mason was in the wrong, and the dad was in the right to dress him down for disrespecting his mother. I came away thinking it was a teaching moment, similar to the fryer or the darkroom scene, and was legitimately surprised to find in the next segment that that was basically his exit scene. More broadly, I guess I'm curious about the stepfather-son relationship as it contrasts with the father-son relationship. Was the stepdad really out of line there?

Watched 20 mins, stopped watching, same as Nebraska, I knew it would kill me. Issues and ****.

The step dad isn't necessarily out of line, but he is a 6 pack in and instead of being cool and asking the kid how his night went and being more subdtle with his talk, he gets on his high horse and belittles the kid's father. No teenage boy in that spot responds well there.

Great movie. One of my favorites in recent years.

I thought the big reveal in that scene was when he turned around and showed that he was wearing what appears to be a prison security uniform. It was an interesting choice and showed how much he changed from the party scene talking about being in the middle east and "we showed them respect" to how life as ground him down to the point of drinking a six pack on the porch waiting to power trip on a 16 year old. I empathized a ton with him in that scene and totally didn't look at him as being "the bad guy" like dad #1. I don't think anybody could have a job like that and not be effected.

Boyhood 10/10

Today I was visiting my youngest sister who just graduated from high school and is heading off to college in a couple weeks. We went disc golfing together and watched this movie. Holy **** I couldn't have watched this masterpiece of a film with a more perfect person at a more perfect time.

Linklater filmed this "coming of age" over 12 years while the child actors (and adults) were in real life coming of age off screen. Every year we get a small slice of life of some seemingly mundane moments that somehow give us enough information to feel the characters lives moving and changing. The major "milestones" in life are all happening off screen between checkins but we know they are happening and we get to see how the characters are being shaped by them.

This "connected" feeling you get to the lives of these characters without seeing everything happen is astounding, and deeply personal to me because it's pretty much how I have watched my sister grow up. Her childhood perfectly mirrors the timeline of Mason in this movie and for most of her "boyhood" (is there a female gender version of that word? girlhood?) I have lived a thousand miles away. It has pained me to miss all those milestones of childhood and growing up but all the while I've been getting short glimpses of the seemingly mundane slices every year during rare visits and holidays. I have been watching this same movie unfold starring my sister using the exact storytelling gimmick for over a decade and somehow Linklater mimic'ed it perfectly! How the ****s does he do that?

Back in the 90's Dazed and Confused made us all feel like we were partying kids in the 70s. Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight gave us the rush of falling in love and the heartbreak of trying to keep it. Linklater has some voodoo magic way of sculpting characters to feel familiar and eerily real. I felt every moment of growing up with Mason Jr even while simultaneously being more like Mason Sr, the father trying to figure out how to pass knowledge down to kids unready to listen. Even the mom Olivia was familiar with her dedication to providing a better life for her kids at the expense of her own.

We should have seen this coming because he's been playing with cinema about childhood, growing up, and even making movies over a long time window. And this 12 year epic is the passion project to end all passion projects. Wow.

I'm a sucker for Linklater. I'll admit it. I love so much of what he's done it was a layup that this was going to be in my wheelhouse. But I wasn't expecting it to be THIS GOOD. THIS EPIC. THIS ****ING REAL. I heard some hype around this in the last month and I'm here to say - believe the hype. He's not just directing a great movie with a great screen play, great visuals, and great acting. He's pushing the bounds of what film making can be. And at this time where CGI is getting stale, blockbusters have lost ambition, and indies are all fighting to show the same angsty late 20 something stare off into the distance pining for that same manic pixie girl - Boyhood is here to say "we all have a story to tell."

We're at a time in history where we can bury our head into our smartphone to distract ourselves with outside drama while the greatest drama in history is unfolding and we are living it. We grow, we laugh, we have conflicts, we are uncertain of the future but somehow we shape ourselves best we can to make it through every day as best we can.

Don't try to seize the moment. Let the moments seize you.

10/10

Linklater 4 prez

I thought it was excellent. The liquor store clerk being the same guy from Dazed and Confused was a nice touch.

So I'm admittedly not that much of a film aficionado. I've only recently started trying to branch out and watch a wider range of films. That said, I got the sense pretty early on in this film that it was a true gift, one I was lucky to be watching. By the end, I was just flabbergasted. Dude just crammed 12 years of this boy's life into less than three hours, and not for one moment did it feel like he bit off more than he could chew. How the **** did he do that?

I certainly don't have the full answer to that question, but man, Linklater sure did a lot to make sure we got the most out of the short time we got to spend with Mason at each stage of his life. This movie could've sucked. It could've been Timestamp 2004, Milestone, Timestamp 2005, Milestone, etc. Instead, I felt like some of the smaller, more relatable moments in the film brought me right back to my childhood. I mean ****, who doesn't remember walking in to school with a bad haircut? In 6th grade, I tried to cut my hair myself, ****ed it up real bad, and that shot - walking in to school with everybody looking at you while it feels like there's a giant elephant in the room - just nailed it.

The most heartbreaking scene in the film for me was when Olivia came back to drunk violent husband's house to reclaim her kids, leaving her husband's kids behind. You see it from Mason's POV multiple times - looking up the staircase at the people he's come to know as a brother and sister, knowing that he's likely seeing these people he's played with, commiserated with, suffered with, for the very last time. Looking back at the house all his things were in as they drive down the street, the place he called home just moments ago. When I was a kid, I got sentimental about the stupidest ****. If I was told I was seeing something I had grown used to for the last time, that really meant something to me, and it didn't have to be something as important as brothers, sisters, or the home I lived in. In my childhood home we had this ugly ass sewer green living room carpet that we replaced when I was ~7-8. I made my parents cut a little piece of it out before they threw it away, so I could keep it.

Other random thoughts, scenes I felt were superbly done in particular:

-Actually felt for the Dad when Mason was disappointed on his birthday about the car. When kids have more childish, wishful expectations, sometimes you'll inevitably let them down.

-Agree with the people who thought the Iraq vet character was interesting. His shift in personality felt very authentic to me. He came back and he was a hero, he was revered, and there was a room full of people listening to his stories. In turn, he showed compassion that was seemingly broken down by everything that happened afterwards. What progress was made in the Middle East had mostly eroded and he had to settle for a job as a corrections officer, probably not what he was looking for. Working as a prison guard could easily fill somebody with contempt for others, give someone the feeling that they're just shoveling **** against the tide. And yeah, while I guess the position he took when yelling at Mason wasn't unreasonable, I still got the feeling that he didn't care for him, and he was yelling more because he resented him.

-Man, Mason was a really smart kid by the end of high school.

-When Olivia told the Hispanic laborer that he should go back to school, I thought it was a bit of an odd thing to say, and kind of condescending in a way. Still, I thought it was an effective emotional moment when he approached her at the restaurant. Just like she had probably not thought about that guy for a second after she told him that, I hadn't thought about him for a second after that first scene he was in. Then just when Olivia was feeling like it was a chore to round up her children to spend some time with her, she got that unexpected reminder that she was appreciated.

-Touched on this earlier, and it might be obvious, but I liked the decision not to use timestamps. Without them, it felt much more like each stage of Mason's life flowed naturally into the next. It wasn't just The Tales of Mason: A Compilation of 12 Short Films.

-Also, I need to go dig up some interviews from Coltrane. Guy just spend 2/3rds of his life filming this movie. This movie was probably in his life for almost as far back as he can remember. That's just amazing.

Coltrane's AMA on reddit was really good. He comes off as a very bright, funny, and respectful 18 year old.

Haha, I was actually just reading that a few minutes ago. Can't imagine watching all of this for the first time after the movie was finished, sounds like it really floored him.

Film is all about the Mum. With a bit more camera time this coulda been motherhood.

wow just watched this..


incredible... there's nothing to fancy about it, aside from watching the kid grow up, but it was just perfect...

would highly recommend

I really loved this film, Linklater at his best.

Undoubtley by now he is my favourite director and Boyhood is probably in the top 3 of his filmography: Dazed and Confused is my fav movie from all times and I reckon Before Sunrise completes the podium.

The way he has to make every dialogue line, every situation and scene look mundane and natural is something either you love and enjoy or hate and disregard. I can understand some people complaining about how "plain" and linear this is but to me is what makes the film great: it just feels natural and a real snapshot from someones life, just like Before Sunrise/Sunset/Midnight.

A special mention to soundtrack is needed, really enjoyed pretty much every song played throughout the film and is a great way to show the passage of time with tracks adapting to every part of his life. When I heard "Trojans" being played it was too much and made me fall for the film completley: I really love that song!

Not sure how it will do at the Academy Awards though, havent seen any of the other nominees yet but really looking forward to, specially Birdman (I love A. G. Iñarritu!). I think is already time for good ol' Richard to get his hands on one of those statuette.

If you can handle the interviewer, this is a great insight on Linklater views on his piece made by VICE guys, really interesting: Linklater on Boyhood

^definitely good call on the sound track im pretty sure each song represented the actual time they were out..

still need to watch before midnight

I just read the first page (thought this thread was started by dwiele on page 2 lol) and found out some interesting POVs and recall on some scenes.

The only part I felt it was kinda forced but appparently people like it, was the scene at the restaurant with the latin guy that the mom encouraged to go to college and how he thanks her for inspiring him. It just felt as an America: Land of Oportunity advertisment but is nothing that tarnish the final product, just a personal perception.

And cant agree more on what Barcalounger says about how Linklater designs the characters on a way that we cant avoid indentyfing with. I think is not only character treatment what achieves this but the usage of moving cameras that record the action in situ over really precise and diagramed shots that let you know clearly that youre watching a movie.

And btw, I really liked the two college chicks from the end (Jessi and Barb is it?), hope Mason can pull there!

Apparently my gf and I are the only people that thought this was pretty overrated. We found it very slow and didn't really see what was so great about the acting of mason or samantah. Arquette and Hawke were the best parts by far. I also didn't find much wrong with the way the ex military dad waited up for Mason. Take the beer out of his hand in that scene and I think most people would be fine with it.

Very cool idea, but it just didn't hit us the same way it hit other people.

Coming from Talk About What You've Seen Lately--Part 3

Disagree. You can either go with that simplistic pov but I think that EVERYTHING happens.

From your posts I see youre a different type of movie fan than me and thats ok. I pass on big noisy blockbusters, and I prefer this type of movies where what matters the most is not the story but the character development.

This film is about all the small things that shape ones life while going through your boyhood. Each scene and each piece of it ends up outlining Mason's character and what he will be in the future.

Probably your expectations were different, but this movie is great on its own way. I love Linkater's movies but can see why not everyone does, is just not suited for every audience and I understand some others - like you - prefer movies that give more importance to the story than the characters.

pls show me which posts of mine lead you to believe I like noisy blockbusters and can't appreciate films that focus on character development?

was it where I specifically pointed out I was a big fan of linklater's previous films?

or was it where I said my fav director was Michael Bay?
do share, I would hate to have a statement made about me like that with no explanation or examples to support it.

thanks.

oh also be a dear and point out what plot points one could post that would "spoil" the film since that's what prompted this exchange.

if I told someone that hadn't seen it the mom remarried a few times and the first step dad was abusive and she had to flee with the kids do you think that would constitute a spoiler?
if so that would seem to contradict your main point.

edit: I don't plan on derailing this thread into a personal back and forth, I'm only here because you called me out in the other thread and ITT are making claims about what kind of films I like with seemingly very lil to support those claims.

My mistake, I made an assumption on your personal taste based on a single post.

Also there's nothing to be spoiled, because nothing happens in the movie, just a bunch of small frames of main character life that shape his life, is just that some people prefer to watch it first and then read about them.

You're right, Im wrong.

Debate finished, thanks for stopping by.

Cheers

I generally like movies where stuff happens...any thoughts on if I will like boyhood?

fair enough.

my post about not being able to spoil the film was mostly tongue in cheek, wasn't planning on describing the film in great detail.

anyways carry on.

cheers.