Boyhood (September 2014)

Official Australian release date: 4/9/14. Viewed: 1/9/14.

Director: Richard Linklater

Actors: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater

Genre: Drama

Rating: M

The premise of ‘Boyhood’ is at once really simple and spectacularly innovate and unique – film a kid growing up through primary and high school. Sounds quite unexciting, but it has literally never been done before – Mason (Coltrane) is show growing from age 7 until 18 (and so is Samantha, director Linklater’s actual daughter), filmed at various stages of his adolescence over 12 years. There’s no subtitles for what year/season it is – it’s up to you to determine at what stage of his life he’s at, but the scenes manage to flow quite easily, even though he ages multiple months/hairstyles each time.

The soundtrack to the film is fantastic and a trip down memory lane itself – Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ opens the film, before Blink 182’s ‘Anthem Part Two’ and Weezer’s ‘Island In The Sun’ instantly date the year as 2001. There was plenty of great/likeable songs throughout – 2002 has The Hives 'Hate to Say I Told You So' and The Flaming Lips ‘Do You Realize’, 2008 has Vampire Weekend’s ‘One (Blake's Got a New Face)’ and Foo Fighters ‘Let It Die’, 2010 has The Black Keys ‘She’s Long Gone’ & Kings of Leon’s ‘Radioactive’ and 2011 has Gotye’s ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’, as well as plenty of others. There’s also a splash of his Dad’s (Hawke) influences, with Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney & George Harrison songs appearing for old time’s sake. One of the best scenes to me was when he gives Mason a compilation of post-Beatles recordings and passionately explains how/why it’s important!

So, is this Oscar bait? Perhaps. Sure, it’s long (2 hours 40min), but it takes you on such a journey that by the time Mason’s in the final  years of high school, you’ve almost forgotten that you first met him as a 7 year old! With a budget of less than $3 million, it’s truly astounding the commitment the four main actors (Arquette is very believable as the mum), the director and production staff put in over 12 years. I can only imagine how long editing has taken!

At its heart, ‘Boyhood’ is a family drama – with lots of laughs thrown in, don’t worry! – that tells a very realistic and well-imagined story of finding who and what you want to be in the world. It will be interesting to see if Coltrane continues acting now. The film’s whole point is essentially asking – how do you recall the formative years – both the highs & lows – that shaped you?

Overall: An astounding odyssey through one boy/man’s life – needs to be seen to be truly appreciated.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.