Boyhood

When you look back at films that are known for their ambition, you generally think of big-scale, multi-chapter sagas like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You would be right, too. These films have long, complex narratives that span many hours of film and have to fit together as a coherent whole. To make that work, there has to be a figurehead overseeing the whole thing, such as a Peter Jackson, a Kevin Feige, or a George Lucas, someone whose vision is driving the narrative towards an inevitable conclusion that will take years to fully realize. 

What you don’t generally think of when looking at ambitious films are the quiet indie films made on a shoestring budget, single films that are small in scale and don’t stir up a whole lot of audience excitement upon release. Yet one of the most ambitious films I can think of in recent memory is just that: 2014’s Boyhood, a low-budget drama about growing up. So what makes this film so ambitious? Director Richard Linklater envisioned a coming-of-age drama that could not be filmed in the conventional way because his protagonist would need to realistically age from about seven years old to eighteen, a feat that could conceivably be done with extensive CGI but not with make-up and camera tricks. To accomplish this, he chose to film this movie a few weeks at a time over a twelve-year span, modifying the script along the way to incorporate real-world events and the interests/lives of the cast as they grew with the production. 

By doing so, there was always the risk of a cast member being unable to continue along the way either from injury or death or, for that matter, simply refusing to continue on with the project. The De Havilland law, named for actress Olivia de Havilland, who fought the studios over excessive contracts, prevented anyone from signing a contract that would span the entire production, so losing a cast member mid-way for any reason was a real issue. For a project like this, most of the cast could be written out should that happen. The obvious exception would be Ellar Coltrane, upon whom the whole film was based. There was also the possibility that the director himself could die before production wrapped up. So much could go wrong in a production that spans such a long period of time. 

On the inverse, though, is that by filming a movie like this, it allows for the finished product to sample real-world events, both personal and global, that would resonate with viewers who had just gone through these years, themselves. It also allows us to see the personal growth and realistic aging of the characters in a way no other type of production could recreate, including by using digital de-aging software. You can make an actor or actress look younger, but you can’t fake their movements to hide the truth; just look at Robert De Niro in The Irishman and try to convince yourself that he is moving around like a man half his real age. 

Boyhood doesn’t have a traditional narrative structure. What we are seeing over the course of the nearly three-hour runtime is a set of interlinking moments in the life of a family, focused specifically on the younger son, Mason Evans Jr. (Ellar Coltrane). When we first meet Mason, he is about seven years old. His parents are divorced, and he is a typical young boy, interested in video games and gawking at the women in the underwear section of a catalog. We are never told the story behind his parents’ breakup but can infer that it had to do with his father, Mason Sr’s (Ethan Hawke) level of maturity and inability to hold down steady employment while performing with his band. 

As the years go by, we see the mother, Olivia (Patricia Evans), marry a professor, Bill Welbrock (Marco Perella), who ends up being an alcoholic and an abuser. She divorces him, moves in with an Iraq war veteran, Jim (Brad Hawkins), and leaves him, too. All the while, we spend copious amounts of time watching Mason Jr develop friends, move away, experiment with alcohol and weed, and discover himself through a passion for photography. When we last see him, he is checking into his dorm room at college, ready for the next big transition in life. 

It takes a steady hand to craft a film like this over such a long period of time and make it feel like a coherent narrative. According to Linklater himself, he started with a rough outline and would craft each segment in detail after watching what had been filmed before and visiting with his cast to get a sense of what they were into and what was going on with their own lives. This method has created an almost biographical narrative chronicling the lives of the actors. This adds an authenticity that may have been absent had the film relied simply on a screenwriter trying to tap into the current events and mindset of the children. Those of us who lived through these years will recognize some of these cultural milestones such as the lines at the bookstore filled with kids eager to get their hands on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.  We also remember how the world was in the years immediately after September 11. Every generation has these milestones, these markers that tie us to the past. For me, the biggest was sitting in class and being told that the Berlin Wall was being torn down. For my parents’ generation, it would be JFK and Bobby Kennedy’s assassinations. 

There are moments in this film that, because of the very nature of the shooting, also tap into historical milestones that might not get noticed by someone looking back at the last ten years and trying to cherry-pick things to highlight in their film. Things like Mason Jr and his father driving around putting up signs in support of Barack Obama and having an ignorant man challenge them by saying “Do I look like I support Barack HUSSEIN Obama?” That little bit of ignorance might have disappeared into the short-term memory of this country had it not been resurrected unnecessarily by our current president. People back in 2008 talked and felt like that, though. 

But this film is not just about a trip down memory lane or an examination into why a woman would keep hooking up with men that are bad for her and her children. It takes nearly the entire film to really get to the point, but when it does, that message is loud and clear. Childhood is fleeting, and those years go by so quickly. As an adult, we see that far more clearly than a kid does. My own childhood seemed to last forever, but it feels like I was in my twenties not that long ago, even though now I’m knocking on the door of fifty. Robin Williams may have taught us Carpe Diem (Seize the Day), but this film teaches us that the day can seize you, too. Life doesn’t give you bumpers, and one day your children will be grown and moved out of the house, and all you will have is that empty home where once children played. And in those moments, the melodic and melancholy music from Fiddler on the Roofwill echo in your heart: “Sunrise, Sunset. Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?”

It’s not just the two children we see grow up, either. Mason Sr. has a lot of that to do, too, over the twelve years we see in his life. The man we first glimpse drives a sports car and lives in squalor and filth with a roommate. He takes his custody time with the kids seriously but seemingly not any of the rest of his life. By the end of the film, he seems to have finally pulled his life together, remarried, drives a minivan, and has a new baby. He’s also found religion, no doubt an influence from his new wife. We also see Olivia dealing with Empty Nest syndrome as she is preparing to sell her home and move into something much smaller now that Mason is leaving for college. Her breakdown is perhaps the most shocking and heart-wrenching moment in the entire film. Patricia Arquette is simply stunning throughout this picture, but none more so than in the final act. 

This film hits differently for me now than it did in 2014. In the eleven years since I first saw it, I have seen my own children grow up, with my youngest graduating from high school in just over a month. I have been through many of these milestones, personally, though thankfully I have never been through divorce, abuse, or alcoholism. Richard Linklater wanted to make a film that covered growing up and found a way to do so that had never been done before and probably never will be done again. Quite simply, this is an amazing picture that tackles the difficulties of maturing and growing up, both the children and the adults. How this massive undertaking didn’t secure him the Best Director Oscar is simply unbelievable. The director’s branch definitely underestimated the monumental task this was in bringing the whole thing together in one cohesive film and having it come out as good as it did.

Academy Award Nominations: 

Best Picture: Richard Linklater and Cathleen Sutherland

Best Director: Richard Linklater

Best Supporting Actor: Ethan Hawke

Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette (won)

Best Original Screenplay: Richard Linklater

Best Film Editing: Sandra Adair

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Release Date: July 11, 2014

Running Time: 165 Minutes

Rated R

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

Directed By: Richard Linklater