BOYHOOD directed by Richard Linklater (USA, 2014)
"Don't grow up - it's a trap" - T-shirt slogan. "So be it when I shall grow old, / or let me die! / The child is father of the man" - William Wordsworth - My Heart Leaps When I Behold (1802).
What a marvel of a movie this is!
12 years in the making, shooting for a few weeks each year, it follows the growing pains of Mason Jr from the age of 6 to 18. Over the course of 166 minutes, the movie shows this boy becoming a man through selected episodes that function in much the same way as memory does, through a gapped linear narrative.
Some reviewers have criticised Ellar Coltrane’s acting prowess which seems to me to miss the point of the project by a merry mile. To realise his role as Mason Jr, Coltrane is not required to get into character; he just needs to be himself. This means we see him as an ungainly, mumbling teenager and empathize with his discomfort as he reaches puberty. Linklater’s own daughter Lorelei plays his older sister and steals the show in the early scenes but it’s this boy’s life that takes centre stage. Continue reading
