Review of Boyhood (2014) by Dawn M — 25 Mar 2015

I have 20 minutes left of this film that I will only watch so that I can say I viewed the film in its entirety. This is not something I want to do, but I guess I have to.

Let me start off by saying that I don't "hate" the film. I don't really even dislike it. I honestly have no feeling towards it one way or the other. I feel like I've been spying on a very mundane modern, post-new millennium family.

Yes, it's "neat" seeing these people age naturally, much like I've seen everyone in my life do over the course of the years. It's nothing new in my life, and I've been doing it by watching shows in syndication as well. The only thing with real life and syndicated shows... there are actually interesting story-lines going on.

Richard Linklater takes a group of actors and films them what seems like once a year for the course of 12 years. I've no idea why he didn't take the break between shots to come up with an interesting story/script. The acting was NOT very good; and at times I felt as if a friend shot this and I was merely being supportive by viewing it. Due to the concept with filming one cast, I wanted to really love it. It's a silly reason to want to love a film, "The cast, they age for reals, no make up!!! GENIUS!!!" Yeah, that's not a very good reason.

I'm only writing this review because I hear it's up for an Oscar. I lack the mental care and energy to search, "Under which freaking category????" If it's best film, I guess I won't hate the nomination as much as I hated the over dramatic, over hyped, over inflated, false sense of social issue, Hollywood lame attempt at a "deep" film; Crash.

The film starts out with a boy day dreaming and he gets in trouble at school. According to his mother; who is really disinterested in the ordeal, he tormented the teacher. Okay, so he goes from spacing off which apparently they treat as the worse offense, then the secondary offense is destroying school property. The boy argues with his sister and they're always at each others throats. The mom moves them to Houston to start a new life- This is where the story should pick up.

The next year she is in college and you're lead to believe she's going to have a thing with her professor. Ffwd to the next year where she's married to the professor and the boy has a bunch of new step siblings. Ffwd to the next year where the professor is abusive, and the mom with her two kids leave. Screw the step-kids. That was the highlight of the film. The ffwrds that follow are extremely boring, low key, and random. She marries another guy who turns out to be another drunk (yes, the professor was a drunk) and abusive. Then it goes to mundane restaurant conversations with the boy who's now a teen with girls that he's dating and then not dating. No mention of further altercations with him and teachers, no more day dreaming, that whole first scene was really nothing. I felt like I could have been spying on my neighbors, if they were really boring, uninteresting people. The only thing Linklater did was throw in modern fashions and technology of the year into the mix so we know that the world is advancing. Watch this for over two hours... two long hours.

I still have twenty minutes left and all I can think is, "Why am I watching an interesting little boy (for the first ten minutes) turn into a boring emo kid (that lasts over two hours)?" The father could have been an interesting character (who has out of place liberal agenda dialogues), but then he gets married and looks like a used car salesman who has conformed to the masses, and it wasn't done in any sort of way that would appear interesting. The mom turns into a boring professor. Oh yes, I'm so anxious to see how this all turns out. :|.

**Update** I saw how it all turned out. The mom acted like it was good he's going off to college. Then she over dramatically cried because her life is over... Did I say over dramatic? It wasn't over dramatic, that would require acting skills. She cried like a five year old does when they're trying to get out of trouble (I chose five because they don't know a good con cry yet). Then he drives awkwardly and stiffly. He goes to college and immediately goes on a hike with his new roommate and two girls where we watch him stiffly walk and then stiffly deliver an awkward conversation where he has no idea where to look or how to "act".

I guess Linklater didn't want to waste time on actually giving direction, and none of the actors wanted to waste time in figuring out how to actually 'act'. I'm glad the film didn't run much longer, otherwise I might go from indifference to actual hatred. After viewing the entirety of the film, it really could replace 'Crash' as the movie to loathe.