Boyhood
Movies and interviews from 26 August 2014
| Boyhood Interview | |
| Felony Interview | |
| Boyhood | |
| Margaret | |
| David | |
| Eat Drink Man Woman : The Classic | |
| Felony | |
| Margaret | |
| David | |
| Magic in the Moonlight | |
| Margaret | |
| David | |
| Predestination | |
| Margaret | |
| David | |
| Predestination Interview | |
The life of a young man (and his family) from age 5 to age 18.
Margaret: David:
Boyhood
Rated M
Review by Margaret Pomeranz
Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD is a one-off, a daring cinema project produced over twelve years charting the experiences of a family through the ups and downs of really quite ordinary life. There's struggling single mother Olivia - Patricia Arquette - who, at the beginning of the film decides to move back to Houston so she can continue her studies and improve the lives of daughter Samantha - played by the director's daughter Lorelei Linklater - and 6 year old son Mason - Ellar Coltrane. Absent father Mason Senior - Ethan Hawke - returns from Alaska so he too can contribute to his children's lives.
Through re-marriages, teenage romances and rebellions, through good times and not such good times we witness young Mason maturing over the years.
This was such a bold project, taking this long term view of a cinematic event, risking commitment of key cast, but they all hung in there for him, filming for 3 to 4 days each year. What is mesmerizing about the film is that it isn't a documentary, like Michael Apted's UP series, it is a narrative film, written by the director, feeling his way as his cast aged and moved into different phases of their lives. It's an extraordinary achievement marked by simply wonderful performances. Patricia Arquette stunning, Ethan Hawke who has worked with Linklater many times over the years is wonderful and so is Lorelei Linklater.
Key to the film is young Ellar Coltrane who is so touching as a boy when we first meet him and so changed by the time he heads off to college at 18. The elision from one time to another is subtle and seamless. It's just a fabulous movie experience.
Further comments
MARGARET: David?
DAVID: It is. It is indeed. I can't really add very much to what you've said because you've said it all. It is an extraordinary concept to film this story over 12 years and we watch, not just Mason, but his sister and his parents grow and change during that 12-year period. Twelve years is a hell of a long time.
MARGARET: Yes, but imagine a film company being willing to finance it?
DAVID: Well, I imagine there was an independence. It was a pretty independent company.
MARGARET: But at the same time: okay, I'll invest in this film and I don't really know that you're going to come up with anything at the end because there are too many variable factors in that time.
DAVID: That's right. I know. Anything could have happened.
MARGARET: Yes.
DAVID: The result is it's a wonderful story. It's a sad story in many ways, as you see the ups and downs, especially of the Patricia Arquette character, the mother, because she makes such bad decisions in her choice of men.
MARGARET: That's what we women do, same mistake over and over again.
DAVID: Look, everybody makes mistakes. It is just a wonderful experience and I think he's a very good director.
MARGARET: I think he has wonderful imagination to even think of this in the first place. I am giving it four and a half stars.
DAVID: I am giving it four.