Review: Boyhood

There are coming-of-age movies and then there is Boyhood, writer-director Richard Linklater's experimental saga filmed in sequence over a 12-year period.

Boyhood covers the milestones of Mason's (Ellar Coltrane) growth from little boy to college-bound teen. We see Mason and his older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) witness the tense separation between their parents Mason Sr. and Olivia (Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette), the succession of stepfathers - with Olivia's marriage to her professor a particularly ill choice, packing up and settling down only to pack up and start all over again, Mason's burgeoning passion for photography, the first kiss, the first heartbreak, and the gradual formation into the man he will become.

Mason is not an extraordinary boy and he certainly does not lack for faults. He is a daydreamer, lackadaisical with schoolwork, a procrastinator. Yet his experiences also make him self-reliant, wary but open to the world and its offerings.

With the exception of Olivia's turbulent marriage to her professor, whose alcoholism fosters an abusive side, the sea changes in Boyhood are subtle and understated. Mason Sr. himself undergoes a change from irresponsible drifter to mature breadwinner - his passion and politics may be questionable but his life lessons do register, though to more skeptical acceptance in Mason's later years. Contrast their lovely conversation about the presence of elves in the world to their more later exchanges - the love is still there but the information is taken with a grain of salt.

Nothing much else happens but Linklater mines magic out of the mundanities of life to create an emotionally resonant tapestry of adolescence and family. Much like the Before Trilogy, which checked in with its romantic pair in 9-year intervals, the story is executed in a natural, organic manner which lends an intimate, almost vérité feel.

The lead quartet are top-notch with Arquette and Hawke doing some of their best work. Lorelei Linklater, the director's daughter, gives a strong showing as the often irritating but plainly assertive Samantha. What a find in her and Coltrane, who evolves from cute kid to awkward pre-teen to confident young man and actor.

Boyhood

Directed by: Richard Linklater

Written by: Richard Linklater

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