Road to the Oscars 2015: Boyhood

The Attractiveness of Being

A review of Boyhood (2014)

Directed by Richard Linklater

I'm a fan of Richard Linklater, and I have to say his best efforts are also his most ambitious, whether it's about a relationship spanning many years (the Before trilogy) or it's rendered using revolutionary rotoscoping technology (Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.) When he delves into more conventional filmmaking, the results are mixed; they range from entertaining (School of Rock) to mediocre at best (Fast Food Nation.) That said, Boyhood is full of ambition. Filmed over the course of twelve years, Boyhood is the story of a boy's life as he grows up in your typical American neighbourhood.

For many, Linklater has the ability to make the mundane seem interesting. A lot of his films, such as Waking Life and Before Sunrise (et al.) are basically two people talking. But there's something in the conversations between his characters that prevent the film from diving into tedium. Boyhood avoids any sort of conventional cinematic narrative - there's no major conflict, there's no antagonist, no overly dramatised or contrived attempt at melodrama - Boyhood thrives on the notion of being, of living in the moment. These are narrative decisions that will not work on everybody, as we are all used to the narrative structures of many other films, Hollywood or not. What appeals to many with Boyhood is how it forges ahead with it anyway, being as honest to life as possible.

Boyhood's cast of interesting characters helps fill out the film. Many come and go, never to be seen again. Some are there sometimes to offer support, like Ethan Hawke's character. The most interesting character in the movie is actually the mother, played by Patricia Arquette. As much as our main protagonist has gone through in his life, the mother's life is far more turbulent - she can't keep a stable relationship, she's for the most part a single mom struggling to feed and educate her children, and towards the end we feel her pain as her household becomes an empty nest. A followup movie called Motherhood - you heard that idea here first, folks. 

With this effort in his already impressive repertoire, I'm excited to see what Linklater can come up with next. Hopefully his subsequent films share the same ambition and scope as some of his best works.