“Boyhood” is a Richard Linklater directed super hit drama. Linklater has skills of converting a simple story into an exceptional movie. Boyhood is not a biopic, but appear to be a documentary due to its story and presentations. I came to know that “Boyhood” movie was filmed spasmodically for eleven years in order to portray the natural growth of a young child and his sister. Linklater portrays growth of kids in a natural way and particularizes how they grow. This paper intends to discuss the movie, “Boyhood” along with presenting a succinct analysis of the movie.
A pretty young boy appears staring towards the sky in the opening scene of the movie. His kind face attracts audiences, and they feel hypnotized. The story revolves around this young boy, named Mason, who appears looking towards the audiences, and people look him growing step by step. Mason is shown six years aged young boy at the beginning of the movie and has been shown as 18 years old adult at the end of this film. I liked the way, moments of life of a young boy are portrayed by the director (Linklater).
Mason is portrayed growing on the screen. He attends school, plays games, he fights with his sister Samantha for various childish things, even pays bills and visits into homes of his friends and neighbors. The story keeps moving, and this young chubby boy turns into a college going adult. The roles of Mason and Samantha are played by Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater in a natural and mature way. Their acting and expressions are remarkable and audiences forget that they are watching movies. It seems that they are in their neighborhood and watching kids playing and fighting over trivial things.
Boyhood has a universal appeal as this issue fascinates every human being, parents and children. This movie takes people on a visceral journey into their childhood. Audiences get to see a child growing, schooling, playing, fighting with his sister and doing childish things on the screen in very natural way. Apart from this aspect, a concrete story line, well-skilled camera work, perfect editing and masterful direction are very strong aspects of the movie that contribute enormously and make it a perfect entertainer.
Boyhood is different from other movies in the sense that instead of presenting abnormal, unique, new or special ideas, it reiterates the story of every human being. Every individual loves to remember his childhood memories, and when he or she sees it on screen, it enthralls audiences. When people see fights between brother and sister on screen, they naturally feel a relation with the movie. The movie reminds audiences of their childhood and lets them ponder over their memories (Seitz).
The movie passes the litmus test of film making; it excels in acting to direction, story to makeup, and camera to other technical aspects. Coltrane does not act but in fact he behaves in this movie. All other actors have delivered their best to the audiences and done justice to their roles. Mason’s sister appears in a bit dramatic role but her role is appreciated as a child actor. Both the child actors have played vivid roles. Apart from presenting child behavior on screen, the film also clues audiences in about life of single parents and life in Afghanistan and Iraq. There are certain points when story appears sluggish but at the end of the day, it succeeds in entertaining audiences.
There are some critics who evaluate the boyhood on different benchmarks. Social ineptness of the main character, mason is one aspect that has been criticized by critics. Critics also raise finger on the broadmindedness of Mason’s parents. Some criticize mason’s attitude towards gender- bending as he lets the girl polishing his nails. Ann Hornaday writes, “By the time Mason, now a deep-voiced teenager, affects an earring, blue nail polish and an artistic interest in photography, viewers get the feeling that he’s dodged at least most of the misogynist conditioning of a boy’s life” (Hornaday).
If one is going to watch this movie, he or she should have enough time and patience. This movie is not very fast as many other movies and moves smoothly. This movie is for people who are relaxed and love communicative ideas. “Boyhood” lets audiences interpret the story as per their own conveniences. Emotional people may interpret it their way while others who like fast movies may find it unattractive. “Boyhood” is one of the movies that touch heart and stimulate the brain.
Having observed the evaluation of the movie, “Boyhood” this paper concludes that this is an excellent movie that reminds people of their childhood. The childhood and growth of children are portrayed on the screen in natural and prototypical way. The film has received wide cheering from audiences as well as critics. “Boyhood” attracts different category of audiences and has become one of the most successful Hollywood movies of the year 2014. The movie succeeds in every aspect of the film making and attracts audiences on the basis of its story, acting, creativity, editing, camera work and direction.
Works Cited
Boyhood. Dir. Richard Linklater. Coltrane, E., Arquette, P., Linklater, L., & Hawke, E. 2014. Online.
Hornaday, Ann. "‘Boyhood’ movie review: Richard Linklater’s audacious, epic cinematic journey." 17 July 2014. The Washington Post. Online. 3 October 2014.
Seitz, Matt Zoller. "Boyhood." 11 July 2014. rogerebert. Online. 3 October 2014.
