Boyhood movie review

Article by Gabe Zia

Lazy Film Critic review...

Boyhood is a drama coming of age film, from one of my favourite directors, Richard Linklater (who has brought us both Dazed and Confused and School of Rock, two of my favorite films). The film is about a boy named Mason, and the story of him growing up, showing various points of his life. The film takes place over the course of 12 years, and was actually filmed over the course of 12 years. The film stars Ellar Coltrane as Mason, and also has Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as his parents.

Ellar Coltrane and Ethan Hawke in Boyhood

Now, first things first, I have to address the fact that this film took 12 years to make. Richard Linklater cast an 8 year old Ellar Coltrane to play Mason back in 2002, then over the course of 12 years made this movie. And I gotta say, this is one of the coolest things I have seen a movie do since Memento. The fact that throughout the movie, it's still the same actors creates a sense of realism most movies cannot achieve. This movie sucks you into this story seamlessly, and is one of the most engaging coming of age stories I've ever seen.

Yeah, that's Ellar Coltrane on the right there.

The actors in the film are - for the most part- pretty good. Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette both gave outstanding performances throughout the film, probably some of the best in their career. However, if there's one actor who absolutely has to be nominated for an oscar for this film, it's Ellar Coltrane. Throughout the film, this guy totally killed it. Each of the stages in his characters life felt real, I got a sense that Ellar Coltrane really gave his all in this movie, and his performance throughout is outstanding. The fact that he can go from a kid actor to an adult actor in one movie, and at no point in the film is it unrealistic, is absolutely insane.

Yeah, it's still Ellar Coltrane.

When it comes to realistic dialogue, Richard Linklater is usually one of the best. The dialogue in this film is crazy realistic, managing to blend the way actual people talk with some wit. I never felt like it was actors reading from a script, the lines and deliver felt genuine throughout the film. This also leads to one of the highlights of the film, which is the pop culture references. Due to the fact that the film look so long to make, a lot of pop culture references to whatever was big at the time show up in the film. Be it political events, movies, or even books, this film is filled with pop culture references.

If you can actually fathom it, it's still Ellar Coltrane.

As with most Linklater films, Boyhood doesn't really have that much of an overarching plot. It's mostly just people talking or doing stuff, with some plot points here and there. The film took 12 years to make, which means a lot of stuff to cover. What I'm getting at is that the film is really long, at nearly 3 hours. Much like Dazed and Confused, not a whole lot happens here, save for a few plot points. So, with a 3 hour film with little plot and just people talking to each other, I found some of the scenes to be a bit slow. Not exactly slow enough for me to say some people wouldn't like this film, but just slow enough for it to be worth mentioning.

Final Rating

Boyhood is an excellent film, with a fantastic performance from newcomer Ellar Coltrane, and some of Linklaters best writing yet. Admittedly, the film is a bit slow, but I wouldn't say it's a boring film. If you're into coming or age films, or if you like Richard Linklaters films, I'd say this is certainly worth your time.

Boyhood: 4.5/5