Boyhood - 12 Years A Boy [Oscars Week]

Communication relies on shared understanding. A lot of film today communicates to its audience by culturally and technically established techniques - a language has been created and we're trained to pick up on it. Whether that be the arc of the story, the hints from the musical score, the quick cuts, etc. Many of these were first done a hundred years ago in silent film. Guys like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton created physical gags and the new artform of film was free to create a new way to tell stories. It's only natural that 100 years later there is a language and many movies rely on that to get across their point. And yes, blockbusters intended for mass, commercial appeal are often the ones to rely on the easiest bits of that language - and there's nothing wrong with that. The magic about Boyhood is that it communicates with a language established long before the creation of the medium of film: the language of life.

The writer and director of Boyhood, Richard Linklater, is a great filmmaker that has been making interesting movies for awhile now. The concept for this movie was simple yet unprecedented: film a story about a boy a few days every year for 12 years and see him age and grow on screen in one film. This is a beautiful idea designed to circumvent that moment where you see the young actor and then all of a sudden the new actor in the same part of the frame or in a similar setting to tell you "yes, this is a different actor, but it's the same character - get it?" No need for that. So that's the gimmick, in its basest, and the beautiful experiment, at its best.

So how does Lilnklater tap into the language of life and film for Boyhood? Certainly other filmmakers have done it before: show everyday interactions and let the character reveal himself. Linklater is really good at these scenes. He shows a couple of boys engrossed in video games oblivious to the fact that one of their mothers is lost as she escapes an abusive relationship. He shows a girl on a bike having a quick conversation with the new kid in town while he walks home. He shows the slightly-forced feeling ceremonies like birthday parties and graduations with extended family you don't really know. Even more than the situations though (all of which might appear in a more traditional, straightforward drama), he writes it and the actors act it in a way that makes you think "I've been in that situation." Yes, there are some melodramatic moments, but even those just happen on the screen without much pushing and prodding of the audience.

All of that has been done before too, but then you add the gimmick, the same people over 12 years. And you realize it is just like your life. One of the criticisms of the movie is that they main character's performance, Mason - played by Ellar Coltrone, is uneven. But that's just like anyone's childhood. You were friends with that really popular kid in 5th grade but then became a music nerd in high school. You were interested in cars and camping but then switched to girls and art. You were more moody younger but then you mellowed out. As I watched the movie I remembered odd, uncharacteristic moments of my life and saw myself in those places and how I become a totally different person than the one you might have seen in that situation.

I guess part of the point I'm making is that it helps the viewer to realize that among the host of mundane small moments in your life your character is formed. As I watch this movie I see that there are moments that can look and sound a lot like mine. Or at least they feel that way. Certainly there are many that aren't: I never drank or had sex in high school (I was never invited to do either). As a parent I often disagreed with decisions that the divorced mother, played by Patrician Arquette, or father, played by Ethan Hawke, were making. The events shown aren't in and of themselves really cinematic, but Boyhood makes them that way without really changing them at all. As you see these characters in these daily interactions and as you relate to them it becomes personal. It makes me want to react to life in a more positive way having, for a brief 2 1/2 hours, looked back at it and reflected on it as a long-term event.

I suppose it seems like an obvious choice, but the music used reflects the year that they were filming and I loved how it was employed. The first few moments kind of threw me because I was expecting the soft acoustic music of the trailer but instead got Coldplay's "Yellow" and later on Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up The Sun." Maybe it's just because I'm a music nerd, but because it is always contemporary to the year they were filming, I found myself reflecting on where I was in life when first hearing that music and this added up to a reflection of how I've changed over the past 12 years. That added dimension made the time in the movie fly by and made my own life seem very fleeting. As soon as I was finished watching this movie I just wanted to watch it over again.

Generally PG-13 but rated R for language.