today I wanna talk about Boyhood, 'cause I think it's a movie worth it.
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| Boyhood (2014) by Richard Linklater |
First of all, this movie is not about a story, it's about a boy growing up. It's about Mason (Ellar Coltrane) growing up with his sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater, the directors daughter), his mother (Patricia Arquette), his Dad (Ethan Hawke) and his many Stepdads.
What makes this movie different is that it was shot over 12 years. So we see little Mason played by little Ellar, then we see taller Mason played by taller Ellar, and at the end we see grown up Mason played by grown up Ellar. Good thing none of the main actors died in the making.
A friend thought this would be like a documentary, like they visit this guy every now and then and then cut it together but it's not. It's a movie with a real script. Good thing Ellar Coltrane didn't grow up to be a bad actor.
This movie was very appealing to me especially, 'cause Mason grew up in the time I grew up. In 2002, when the film started shooting, Ellar Coltrane was 7, while I was almost 9. So when he played his Gameboy Advance SP it reminded me of myself playing on my Gameboy, and when his mother read Harry Potter to him and his sister, I remembered how I read Harry Potter. So it had a very personal vibe to me especially, and I felt nostalgic watching it.
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| The mother (Patricia Arquette) reading Harry Potter to her kids |
I won't go through all of the storyline, because it's not about the story, as I said above. It's about life. It starts right in a day of Masons life, and it ends with his first day at college, hanging out with people he just met. You don't have a movie beginning that explains stuff to you. It also doesn't have a real ending. Also all throughout the movie, there is almost nothing elaborated, you really just get glimpses of his life. For example you see him in school as an emo boy and he is intimidated by them. But we only see this one time and we don't even see if it has any real impact. We see this one girl telling him his "hair looks kewl" but again, we don't get what happened afterwards. But we don't need to. We know this girl liked him, but since he was a little boy there probably wasn't more. We saw him making out with this other chick in a car when he was older, but we never even really see her face. And we don't need to. Also he has two Step-Siblings at one point. They leave them in a miserable situation and we never see them again. But that is just like in real life, sometimes people just disappear and you never see them again. Sometimes they can come back though, so we meet one guy in the middle of the movie and never see him again right until the end.
But now let me talk about how the movie was made. They started shooting in 2002 and ended shooting in 2013, which means the actors all had to get a 12 year contract. Then they met once a year and shot a 15 minute short. Every year. So, in conclusion they had 12 15-minute shortfilms, each about one year of the life of Mason. And then they cut it together to one long movie. But it doesn't feel like that. In the case that the Director Richard Linklater would die, Ethan Hawke would do the directors job himself. Linklater cast his daughter Lorelei because she wanted to be in it sooo bad that he got her in, And when she got older, she didn't want to be in anymore and said she wanted him to kill her character off. He of course didn't want her to end that way, and in the end she wanted to be in it again so all turned out good. I think it's good that all the actors stayed in the movie, no one died, no one quit, no one ended in jail because of drug abuse. In the end I'm glad it all ended in this awesome movie.
The only thing I didn't like about this movie was that somehow every single character was an asshole at some point and I felt annoyed by all of them. And I was wondering what it is with this woman that turns every man into an alcoholic ... but well.
All in all if you are in the mood for a movie without action, but with a lot of love, you will enjoy this movie, I'm sure.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article, you can follow me by putting your Email address on the right and get an Email every time I post something.
Hope you'll come back,
jolocus
All the pictures belong to http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
But now let me talk about how the movie was made. They started shooting in 2002 and ended shooting in 2013, which means the actors all had to get a 12 year contract. Then they met once a year and shot a 15 minute short. Every year. So, in conclusion they had 12 15-minute shortfilms, each about one year of the life of Mason. And then they cut it together to one long movie. But it doesn't feel like that. In the case that the Director Richard Linklater would die, Ethan Hawke would do the directors job himself. Linklater cast his daughter Lorelei because she wanted to be in it sooo bad that he got her in, And when she got older, she didn't want to be in anymore and said she wanted him to kill her character off. He of course didn't want her to end that way, and in the end she wanted to be in it again so all turned out good. I think it's good that all the actors stayed in the movie, no one died, no one quit, no one ended in jail because of drug abuse. In the end I'm glad it all ended in this awesome movie.
The only thing I didn't like about this movie was that somehow every single character was an asshole at some point and I felt annoyed by all of them. And I was wondering what it is with this woman that turns every man into an alcoholic ... but well.
All in all if you are in the mood for a movie without action, but with a lot of love, you will enjoy this movie, I'm sure.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article, you can follow me by putting your Email address on the right and get an Email every time I post something.
Hope you'll come back,
jolocus
All the pictures belong to http://www.rottentomatoes.com/
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