Review of Boyhood (2014) by Akashvijay — 19 Jan 2015

Okay I may be in the vast minority in this one but I feel Boyhood is tremendously overpraised. It's not, by any means, a bad film, just not nearly as good as most critics claim it is. The problem I have with this film is its glaring lack of substance. There is not a single character in this film that goes through some kind of character arc. The minor changes they undergo are left obscure and there are no hints as to what brought about those changes. None of the characters are likable. The entire film almost is a passive observation of this family's uneventful progression through the years. Although that worked very well in the first half of the movie the second half seemed superfluous. It brings back some of the most overused cliches (honestly if I had a nickel for every time a movie showed the divorced dad as cool and buff and the divorced mother as the complete opposite). The kid actors are great but as they age they seem less and less convincing. The dialogue as well suffers from cranky and mawkish moments. And on top of all that it lacks lacks a narrative structure. If you look at the Tree of Life, which is just as unstructured, Malick took advantage of that and turned it into a meditation on human behavior. Boyhood didn't even attempt to achieve anything of the sort. Tree of Life was poetry; Boyhood is just product. All the reviews I've read so far seem to be obsessed with the concept of the film rather than the final result. To me, Boyhood is yet another film that didn't come close to justifying its overblown hype.

Re:Edit: But now that the hype has settled, I do agree that it's a great film. It explores the notion of growing up, our ethical definitions about what is right and wrong and the truth behind the social "code" for well-being. Mason (Ellar Coltrane) starts of as a young boy who enjoyed spraying paint in the corner of streets and collecting arrow heads. As the film continues he grows into a deep and thought-provoking teenager who's obsessed with understanding human behaviour, the significance of our actions and the value of life itself. He's able to express his emotions though art. Ethan Hawke's character grows responsible and matures as the film progresses. His conversations with Mason transcend from talking about the next Star Wars movie to understanding the purpose of life and living. Patricia Arquette is very very good as the mother obsessed with the idea of "fixing" her family through marriage (and she does marry men of all sorts). She grows up to realise that chasing the conventionality of society is a pipe dream and does not lead to a better life. On the contrary it's a burden to her and her children for the most part.

Life doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be lived.

The true genius of Boyhood is how it's able to juggle all these characters, in one go and still provide them depth, clarity and most importantly an identity.

At the end of the movie. Nicole asks Mason if he believes in the expression "seize the moment". Mason replies, "It's the moment that seizes you" and he's absolutely right.