Boyhood

[LA Ute]

I guess my wife and I are among the tiny minority of viewers who don't consider this a stupendous masterpiece. In fact, although the movie was very interesting, I wouldn't mind having that 2:44 of my life back. It's technically well-done, well-acted, and beautifully shot. I liked the dialogue. For me, a coming of age movie in which it is not only a little difficult to care about the main character, but it also gets harder and harder to care about him, didn't work. Not a bad movie, IMO, just not a terrific one.

At least Kenneth Turan agrees with me. He writes about being a lonely critic who doesn't love a movie that leaves everyone else feeling blown away.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...803-story.html

[Commando]

Haven't seen Boyhood yet; I'll keep everyone posted on that front. However, Boyz n the Hood is on Netflix and I gave it a spin- one of my favorites from the 90s. For a while I used to think, or at least strongly suspected that the guys in the red car were Naughty by Nature b/c the shooter looks just like Kaygee and the main heavy had long hair "like Samson," which was Treach's trademark at the time. Also, you couldnt just queue up imdb at the time and figure it out instantly.

[jay santos]

Man I wanted to love this.

Here's what I don't recommend you do before watching this film: watch all three "Before" movies in a short period of time. I did this, and while I loved the first one, the second one was enjoyable, but by the end of the last one I just hit the wall and the dialogue between Ethan Hawke and the lead female became so excruciatingly annoying, I would have paid a month's salary for the chance to punch them both in the face.

Boyhood is a different movie, but the director employs the same tactics of using a long series of scenes with nothing but dialogue going on. Which is unique and original, just too similar to the Before movies for me after just watching them.

(mild spoilers here)

I thought it was very cool to see the progression of the characters from beginning to end. And though with the childhood actors is where the most change occurs, I actually thought the most compelling part was to see the change in the mother and father. And the most insightful line of the whole movie was made by the boy at the end where the dad says something like "yeah after all these years, I've become what your mother wanted me to be, too bad she couldn't have been more patient" and the kid says "yeah it would have saved me from a lot of drunk step dads or something". Ouch.

[MarkGrace]

That's what you get for watching the before trilogy. Should have come to you realization in the first of them, not the last.

[UVACoug]

Man I wanted to love this.

Here's what I don't recommend you do before watching this film: watch all three "Before" movies in a short period of time. I did this, and while I loved the first one, the second one was enjoyable, but by the end of the last one I just hit the wall and the dialogue between Ethan Hawke and the lead female became so excruciatingly annoying, I would have paid a month's salary for the chance to punch them both in the face.

Boyhood is a different movie, but the director employs the same tactics of using a long series of scenes with nothing but dialogue going on. Which is unique and original, just too similar to the Before movies for me after just watching them.

(mild spoilers here)

I thought it was very cool to see the progression of the characters from beginning to end. And though with the childhood actors is where the most change occurs, I actually thought the most compelling part was to see the change in the mother and father. And the most insightful line of the whole movie was made by the boy at the end where the dad says something like "yeah after all these years, I've become what your mother wanted me to be, too bad she couldn't have been more patient" and the kid says "yeah it would have saved me from a lot of drunk step dads or something". Ouch.

Love the Before trilogy, but I can see how they could become unbearable when watched back to back. They are probably best experienced several years apart from each other.

[Donuthole]

I found myself with 5 hours to kill in Reno yesterday after my depositions ended early and the earlier return flights were all booked. Being the non-gambler that I am, I passed on the $2 minimum craps and hit up the theater.

I really enjoyed the show, even though it just feels so uncomfortable as a viewer to sit and watch something which so obviously and intentionally lacks the dramatic structure we're so accustomed to experiencing at the theater. Due to cinematic pre-programming, I found myself expecting awful things to suddenly happen (like when they're "camping" at the unfinished house, I was just waiting for their antics to get someone injured; or when he's driving with his girlfriend and they're looking at pictures on her phone, i was waiting for the car wreck, etc.). And each time nothing happened, I chuckled at myself for not being able to abandon the movie-goer paradigm.

I appreciated how organically they moved through time. No text screens to explain the passage of time, and no campy monologues to explain the change in location, etc. You would start watching a scene, see one of the characters, and realize "hey, he looks older" or "Hey, she's not fat anymore" or "hey, this is a new house they're in" and suddenly realize that some time had passed. I also enjoyed the pop-culture cues to let you know just where in time we were (Gameboy Advance, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, etc.), and I loved how the soundtrack mirrored the progression of time and provided a sort of audio timeline for the show.

There was some comic relief (restaurant manager; uncle throwing out the euphemistic one-liners "pull woll" etc.; Obama worshiper and Obama hater stereotypes, etc.) but probably not enough. And while I agree with LaLaUte that the kid didn't exactly grow into a loveable character, I think that result probably would have cheapened the overall experience. This wasn't a typical movie, so why should it have a typical result? Ultimately, the movie is a unique experience, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

[Donuthole]

Boyhood is a lock for Oscar Nominee. A quick but interesting read about how Boyhood has some of the key elements to win Best Picture, and how it will have to overcome some common-but-not-unbreakable trends to do so. I thought this was an interesting perspective:

In most years, the Oscar race becomes naturally oppositional. Dialectics emerge — the human-scale severity of 12 Years a Slave and the high-tech wow factor of Gravity seem to represent not just two movies but two schools of thought vying for prevalence. Pulp Fiction vs. Forrest Gump, Crash vs. Brokeback Mountain, and The King’s Speech vs. The Social Network were pairings that all but ordered impassioned cinephiles to choose sides.

It’s very hard to look ahead at this year’s field and try to pick the anti-Boyhood; what kind of movie would stand to gain anything by having its fans stake out that position? And it’s also hard to imagine a film that will effectively reach the average Academy voter — a white male empty nester in his early sixties — in a more personal place. The movie, after all, is at least as much about the poignancy of watching a child slip away from you and into adulthood as it is about the boy himself. In the Academy, the Harry Chapin “Cat’s in the Cradle” demographic is big, and a film that hits that demographic in the heart is not to be underestimated.

[Topper]

I found myself with 5 hours to kill in Reno yesterday after my depositions ended early and the earlier return flights were all booked. Being the non-gambler that I am, I passed on the $2 minimum craps and hit up the theater.

I really enjoyed the show, even though it just feels so uncomfortable as a viewer to sit and watch something which so obviously and intentionally lacks the dramatic structure we're so accustomed to experiencing at the theater. Due to cinematic pre-programming, I found myself expecting awful things to suddenly happen (like when they're "camping" at the unfinished house, I was just waiting for their antics to get someone injured; or when he's driving with his girlfriend and they're looking at pictures on her phone, i was waiting for the car wreck, etc.). And each time nothing happened, I chuckled at myself for not being able to abandon the movie-goer paradigm.

I appreciated how organically they moved through time. No text screens to explain the passage of time, and no campy monologues to explain the change in location, etc. You would start watching a scene, see one of the characters, and realize "hey, he looks older" or "Hey, she's not fat anymore" or "hey, this is a new house they're in" and suddenly realize that some time had passed. I also enjoyed the pop-culture cues to let you know just where in time we were (Gameboy Advance, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, etc.), and I loved how the soundtrack mirrored the progression of time and provided a sort of audio timeline for the show.

There was some comic relief (restaurant manager; uncle throwing out the euphemistic one-liners "pull woll" etc.; Obama worshiper and Obama hater stereotypes, etc.) but probably not enough. And while I agree with LaLaUte that the kid didn't exactly grow into a loveable character, I think that result probably would have cheapened the overall experience. This wasn't a typical movie, so why should it have a typical result? Ultimately, the movie is a unique experience, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Boyhood got a mild thumbs up for me.

It is a bit uneven and the other characters really failed to grow or to mature. I am glad to have watched it, but I wouldn't watch it again.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Boyhood got a mild thumbs up for me.

It is a bit uneven and the other characters really failed to grow or to mature. I am glad to have watched it, but I wouldn't watch it again.

I thought one of the most interesting elements of the movie was how the dad evolved over the twelve years. There were several poignant moments relating to that evolution, including

Spoiler for a couple of examples:

the mom watching wistfully as her ex drove off in minivan with his new young family, having given up his GTO to sacrifice for his new family, and the dad commenting to the son something along the lines of "I've finally become the man your mother wanted me to be." Watching the mom become increasingly beaten down as life dealt her multiple unfair hands. "I just thought it would have been better," as she breaks down.

I really appreciated the way the characters changed so believably.

[UVACoug]

Boyhood is a lock for Oscar Nominee. A quick but interesting read about how Boyhood has some of the key elements to win Best Picture, and how it will have to overcome some common-but-not-unbreakable trends to do so. I thought this was an interesting perspective:

I think there is a better chance of it not getting nominated, than winning Best Picture. The Academy has never shown much love to Linklater. There were a handful of articles last year claiming Before Midnight was a frontrunner for Best Picture after it premiered at Sundance. It wasn't even nominated.

[Topper]

I thought one of the most interesting elements of the movie was how the dad evolved over the twelve years. There were several poignant moments relating to that evolution, including

Spoiler for a couple of examples:

the mom watching wistfully as her ex drove off in minivan with his new young family, having given up his GTO to sacrifice for his new family, and the dad commenting to the son something along the lines of "I've finally become the man your mother wanted me to be." Watching the mom become increasingly beaten down as life dealt her multiple unfair hands. "I just thought it would have been better," as she breaks down.

I really appreciated the way the characters changed so believably.

But remember the scene in the kitchen where he failed to contribute? There was small movement but no dramatic change.