Boyhood — Page 2

Boyhood really drags in many spots. Thank God Ethan Hawke was able to elevate it with his endearing performance.

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Updated On: 2/13/15 at 12:29 PM

"it wasn't as bad as Tree of Life"

Is it even possible for a movie to be as bad as the Tree of Life?

So why do I get criticized for not liking The Tree of Life, but not Mister Matt?

And that movie was just awful awful awful.

I didn't like either one as much as I wanted to. Birdman peaks too early for me and Boyhood sort of just trails off into nothingness when we get into Mason's teen years. I also couldn't help but feeling I was being savagely manipulated with nostalgia while watching boyhood, lol.

Boyhood is a nice film with a gimmick that works, but beyond that, it's pretty overrated.

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Boyhood was a movie that took 11 years to make and 11 years to watch. At least it felt that way.

Painful, despite some nice moments and a really good performance by Patricia Arquette.

I don't get why this movie is the "critics' darling" this year. It adds up to a nicely-made after-school special with the gimmick of watching everyone age throughout the film.

End result: Snooze.

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It's about a boy and his family. If you like Our Town, you will like this.

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There's no particular plot -- it just follows a group of characters over a period of years. Life happens. It either works for you or it doesn't.

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None of the kids they used to play Mason at different ages looked anything like the others and it really took me out of the film. Indeedio.

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I don't get why this is the critics' darling either. If it had been made the "traditional" way with a different actor portraying him at different parts of his life, it would be a totally dull movie. Hence, it's all about the gimmick. Sure, it's cool to see him growing up before our eyes but if that's what I wanted to see, then I'd rather watch Harry Potter instead. At least those films had an exciting plot to back them up.

If it were up to me, The Grand Budapest Hotel would be the Best Picture winner. Every little detail of the film was meticulously designed, the casting superb and it had an engrossing story (and I'm not even the biggest Wes Anderson fan). This film truly showed the craft in filmmaking.

BOYHOOD worked for me like gangbusters. (SPOILERS ABOUND) I found the alcoholic second husband scenes to be shocking in just how banal the abuse seemed. The forced haircut was heartbreaking. Her decision to leave her step-kids behind was unsettling. The kindness afforded to the step mother's religious parents was quietly beautiful. Arquette's ambivalence at being told by the young Latino man she helped is some of the best screen acting I've seen in years. And Hawke's scene with his son as the band sound checks felt like a moment of grace. There was no traditional narrative arc, but this film captures something no other narrative film I've seen does: life. I can't agree that it's a gimmick. It's the point.

I do have a question that I've been wondering about. After Mason gets the forced crew cut, a pretty brunette girl passes a note that says she likes his haircut and its signed with her name. Near the end of the film, he's introduced at college to a pretty brunette young woman whom I thought had the same name as the note-writing girl, and for a second, I thought it could be the same actress/character. Did anyone else notice this? Am I making it all up?

"Arquette's ambivalence at being told by the young Latino man she helped is some of the best screen acting I've seen in years"

Funny. That's actually the one scene I hated from the film. It just felt so forced to me. Up to that point, it really felt like a natural film but then that scene made me like I was watching some educational ad. It just felt vey cliché to me and not in the realm of what Boyhood set out to do.

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It was.

Yeah. A "joke".