Boyhood (REDUX)

My illustrious colleague, Valerie, already reviewed this film back in August.  In her review, she said, "You're being handed LIFE on a platter."  How true!

I'd like to add a few additional thoughts.  You have no doubt heard about the originality of this film, which Valerie noted:  You get to watch two kids grow up over a period of fifteen years....and see two big film stars, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, grow older too!

Once you get past the oddity of actually watching kids and movie actors change before your very eyes, you can focus on the real worth of the film:  a searing portrait of divorce and the struggle two kids face having to grow up amid turmoil in a changing world.

Patricia Arquette brilliantly plays the single mom who keeps choosing lousy men as husbands and stepfathers to her kids.  Our hearts go out to her: she struggles to be a wage earner and caring mom in spite of the miserable men she garners.

In the first half of the film, we see all the angst of the broken home.  We feel for the poor kids who must deal with new step-fathers and siblings as they come of age.  We are gripped by portraits of men who would impose, with drunken meanness, their definition of macho upon the kids.

In the second half, the camera shifts more on the boy...thus the title Boyhood.  We watch a young man go through rites of passage in middle school, high school, and early college.  The boy is an artistic, sensitive individual, who seeks answers to some of the larger questions of life.

I must agree with Valerie that his film is a must-see for it's pure originality.  But as a viewer I would strive to look beyond the gimmick and examine the power of the story.  The film offers one of the most memorable, shocking, riveting portraits of marriage, parenting, and coming of age ever presented on screen.

As I read the history of this film project, I was astonished to learn that the film was a joint creative venture.  The film is the brainchild of Richard Linklater, who included his daughter as a main character.  Apparently, the major actors, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, also helped in the writing process, contributing themes from their own life experiences.

Over the twelve years of filming, the story evolved organically from the minds of those involved.  Every actor helped work out the plot and characterizations.  What a concept!


This is a work of art that cannot be missed.