'Boyhood' review

Richard Linklater has crafted a modern masterpiece with his new film, "Boyhood"

The making of this movie itself is a good story. Linklater wanted to create a film about childhood, and growing up from the age of six, to the age of eighteen. Instead of doing this in the traditional way, Linklater got his cast and crew to film about four to five days worth of film once every year, for twelve years. The audience is actually able to see this boy grow up and the world around him change all in the course of two and a half hours.

The movie itself feels more like a series of events than one whole story, but there is definitely a plot. Mason (Newcomer: Ellar Coltrane) and his older sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) live with their financially struggling mother (played wonderfully by Patricia Arquette) in Texas. Their single father (Ethan Hawke) is always giving them a bit more leeway to express themselves. The relationships develop and blossom. New stepfathers, girlfriends, movies, songs, video games, substances, presidential candidates, viewpoints on life and politics leak their way into this young boy's life with each passing year.

One of the many things I adored about this film was the casting. Ethan Hawke always seems to do his best work when working with Linklater. Patricia Arquette is also fantastic as always. But the real standouts are Ellar Coltrane as our main star, Mason, and Lorelei Linklater as his sister. Both were cast at such a young age. So it's really incredible that the director was lucky enough to choose two kids who would become two TERRIFIC actors. They sell every emotion. They were relatable, funny, and by no means "run of the mill".

The film is also an incredible time capsule. With each passing year there is a song, or product that is seen or heard or murmured about that sends you back to whatever it was. In one scene, a guy's riding a Ripstick while listening to 'Soulja Boy', and it instantly took me back to 2007. Also, the conversations Mason has with his father, were very similar to what I'd be talking with my dad about during that time period. There's a great sequence of dialogue revolving around the idea of more "Star Wars" movies that actually gets funnier with age.

But the movie isn't just a series of references and realistic dialogue. There are themes throughout. And many may have a different view on what those themes are. We can all agree that it's about growing up and what its like picking up all these responsibilities when you go off into the real world, but the other one I couldn't help but notice was the idea of relationships. Mason grows up to be a person who wants to question the society around him. Women are attracted to him for his different and strange viewpoints, but no one TRULY gets him as a person. This is also mirrored off his mother, who we see in a series of lousy relationships and different marriages (One sequence involving a drunken, abusive stepfather is some of the film's most tense moments).

This film packs in so much and has a lengthy run time of two hours and forty five minutes (Ironically the same length as the new Transformers crap fest), yet it never feels like it drags on, like so many other films nowadays do. As a matter of fact, when Patricia Arquette is lamenting having to send her son to college near the end, you kinda feel her pain, because you've been watching this kid in a series of small memories for twelve years in movie time. You feel like an extremely close family friend, and very rarely has a director made the relationship between the characters and the audience feel this intimate.

To put it simply: "Boyhood" is one of the best films of this generation.

Grade: A+

Reviewed by Josh McCormack