Review of Boyhood (2014) by Miguel O — 09 Jul 2016

Recording a movie over 12 years in order to see the characters grow up as the actors do is a bold movement. The performances are solid and the dialogue is well-written. However, the lack of a climax or even a plot makes Boyhood feel more like an art project and less like a film. Boyhood relies heavily on nostalgia and life events that are so incredibly common in the life of an average American boy, they beat the purpose of the film. The film is highly enjoyable in fractions since at several points the story becomes tedious.

Boyhood is by no means a bad movie, but I can't help it but to think how much more entertaining and emotionally investing would have been if instead of an average American boy the film would have shown the life of a middle-Eastern child in the middle of the civil war or a Latin American kid during times of drug wars where we could witness tragedy and colossal events that surround the life of the main character from the innocent perspective of a kid not quite understanding why is mom crying or why can't he hang out anymore with his gangster cousin... so many missed opportunities.