If you’ve seen the 2014 film, "Boyhood," you’ve likely experienced the raw emotional awe that is so beautifully imparted on the majority of the film’s viewers. "Boyhood" is the embodiment of the blatant truth of life and growing up, and both the experiences of a child and a parent as time passes and the reality of life becomes more and more daunting.
The film follows a lower-middle class family, focusing mainly on Mason Evans (Ellar Coltrane) and his journey as he goes through childhood into adolescence into adulthood. We also follow the lives of his family, including his sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), his mother, Olivia (Patricia Arquette), and his father, Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke).
Filmed over a 12 year period, Boyhood follows the same actors as they portray a family living through modern struggles and experiences. The film brilliantly captures the oblivion, yet stunning wisdom and awareness, of childhood, followed by the existentialism and angst that come naturally with the teenage years, and eventually the journey self-discovery and analysis of society that we all must go through as we mature into adulthood.
The film’s director, Richard Linklater ("Before Sunset" (2004), "Dazed and Confused" (1993), "Slacker" (1991), etc.), is incandescent in his portrayal of time and the natural progression of life. Viewers are left with the awakening realization that life itself is not the milestones that we idolize, but the moments in between, when we’re too distracted by day to day inconveniences to truly understand what it is that we are witnessing.
The passing of time is seamless as it is only shown through the natural process of aging and growing up. The actors portray the realities of the characters in such an effortless and natural way, it seems less like a movie and more like a glimpse into reality; it’s as if we’re being allowed to see the rawest details of someone else’s life. Life and time and family and truth are all analyzed beautifully by Linklater and portrayed flawlessly by the cast of "Boyhood." It is a film that everyone, in every stage of life, should get to see; it is the pinnacle of cinematic brilliance.
