Boyhood - An Epic Journey

Please forgive the clichéd title, i'm feeling a little emotional. Boyhood is a 2014 epic coming of age film by Richard Linklater, starring Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke and introducing Ellar Coltrane as Mason Jr. Boyhood charts the journey of a young boy to adulthood, his emotional growth and how his relationship with his parents changes. The film started production in 2002, shooting intermittently for 12 years, using the same actor playing the boy, showing how he changes as he grows. The film also features Linklater's daughter as Mason Jr's sister.

The film was written by Linklater, and the story was changed to accommodate the growth of the actor playing the boy, the performances in the film are very fine, Ethan Hawke is fantastic as Mason Sr, the boy's absent and irresponsible father, and Patricia Arquette gives a fine performance. Ellar Coltrane is a great revelation, showing huge emotional depth, and one of the greatest performances by a child actor ever witnessed. Given that this is a film about emotional growth and coming of age, the success of this picture depends on it's actors, and the performers give such fine performances that the film is able to ride on their performances, and the camera may be content to simply watch.

The story of the film is loose and open, it is shot almost like a documentary, and many of the events witnessed may seem to be unremarkable and pedestrian on their own, but when put together, they are magneficent and show huge progression. What is incredible about Boyhood, is that it is essentially a film about nothing, but it is also a film about everything, a film about the circle of life and the way we relate to our parents and about maternal attachment, a film in which everyday occurrences are photographed and edited to show how we grow and progress into adults.

Boyhood is essentially a 3 million dollar experiment, a 12 year gamble and the kind of film which has never been seen before, never before has time been used to such great effect, particularly on such a low budget film, normally low budget films have short production windows in order to keep costs down, but by utilizing such a long production span, Linklater has managed to create an epic journey in which distance traveled is not miles but years. Ironically despite portraying such an epic journey, Boyhood is a film about something that every single human being goes through, growing up.

Boyhood is an astounding film, a film about life and growth, a truly epic adventure about something incredibly pedestrian and ludicrously ordinary. Boyhood is the kind of film that we have never seen before and may never be seen again. A film bolstered by magnificent performances and beautiful imagery. A film about nothing, and also about everything, and epic journey about the circle of life. Rating: A+

Dad: You don't want the bumpers, life doesn't give you bumpers.