Courtesy of IFC Films and Universal Pictures.
Boyhood
When this movie was released in 2014, its main draw was the peculiar but groundbreaking way in which it was shot. Director Richard Linklater started the filming in 2002, shot for about two weeks, and then put down the camera again for a whole year. He continued like this, shooting the same movie with the same cast for several weeks a year, for ten years, until he finally had his finished product: a story about growing up wherein the audience would actually, physically get to see the characters growing up. Pretty cool stuff, revolutionary filmmaking, and the gimmick pays off- it IS amazing to (at least feel like we’re getting to) virtually experience a significant portion of the lives of a family.
Because it spans 10 years, we don’t get a consistent plot that carries us through to the end, which was a major criticism from those who didn’t appreciate this gimmick-heavy movie. But the plot wasn’t ever really the point. Just watching as our boy, Mason, and his sister, Olivia, slowly move from childhood to young adulthood feels like enough. And it’s done so well (or maybe the movie’s just SO long) that there are subtle verbal and visual callbacks in scenes that’ll make you think back to earlier moments as though they were memories of your own. For a single movie to attempt to explore and frame an actual life in the context of a narrative structure is huge, and if nothing else, this film will make you think about aging, memory, what we choose to allow to define us, and the story we write for/about ourselves when we take the time to look back.
Especially avoid if: Your tumultuous family life as a child is still raw. Mason and Olivia’s parents consistently make awful and damaging choices. They make some good ones, too, but because we’re mostly watching through Mason’s eyes, the hurtful ones are the most profound, and will likely be the most upsetting to you.