Review of Boyhood (2014) by Aodhan R — 07 Mar 2015

As most of this year's award ceremonies have occurred and fled, it's probably out of common certainty that Boyhood will take home the Best Picture Academy Award - although, I'm not convinced; Boyhood was a fine effort to tell a heart-warming tale without any emotion or supreme acting from its leads, instead it's mostly just stolid performances.

Within the first hour of the movie, I agreed with my positive, critical thinking that Boyhood would be eligible of having a chance of earning an Academy Award for it's unique screenplay by Richard Linklater, who is also director - and for all the audience know maybe it will - the first hour was great, but thereafter the screenplay and direction falls, immediately, in the direction of clichés. Linklater did a splendid job in telling a heart-warming tale about the 12 years of boy's life from his early childhood right up to him preparing himself for graduation and subsequently college - and following the first hour there's one hour and forty-five minutes left, which covers some potential clichés; there's little emotion to be found on the screenplay or from it's actors, and stolid performances can be favourable nonetheless, but that's not how, I believe, Linklater hoped to get his message across.

As truly great and outstanding this story appears to be in its first Act, I think the second and third Acts were a tough job, which were hard to reach a conclusion unlike most similar dramas, but fair play to director and writer Richard Linklater, who dedicated a lot to this movie.