Boyhood (2014) or Adulthood

My Take on Boyhood

            First off, I enjoyed Boyhood for the simple fact that it was in fact a cinematic achievement. One can not ignore this especially when watching the movie as it runs its course through the lives of its characters.  Given this, I understand why many consider it to be the best film of the year, but then I also understand why some may call it a gimmick.

For those who aren’t familiar with the movie, it’s simply a slice-of-life, 12 years in the making film “project” about a young boy’s growth and experiences. However, we do not necessarily witness the major experiences in his life. How I saw it, it mostly takes place, almost at random times, between those key periods. You never really see him have his first beer, his first girlfriend, driving a car for the first time, or even his first time having sex. It’s simply a “what is currently going on with this boy this summer” type of movie. The transitions of him growing up are incredible because you don’t fully realize them until you start to see changes in the characters even if they are minor like Ethan Hawke’s character growing a moustache. Couple with great performances by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke made the movie incredibly relatable and all the more heartfelt.

Now, it’s time I start explaining the faults I had with it. The main problem for me was that the two children characters were either too annoying or too depressing. The daughter, played by Lorelei Linklater, was extremely annoying as she herself continued to grow older. It then became painfully obvious that she was a useless character in the movie. I understand that it is a slice-of-life movie and that nothing really should happen, but her character hardly even talked. Plus, she was hardly even in it. I really could have done without her whiny character. It wasn’t even her movie, and she added some truly insensitive moments such as when her mom is going through financial hardship. You could even tell her character did not care at all towards the end about how her mom felt. I just really could not stand her. Ellar Coltrane’s character of Mason wasn’t as bad as Linklater’s Samantha, but it was mainly due to the fact that it was accumulating instead of being shoved in your face all at once. He was very depressing in his too carefree attitude and his sometimes pessimistic view at the world. His “I don’t care what people think” attitude just continued to grow as he aged to the point where I did not care about the character at all. Towards his final three years, I just wanted the film to be over. It literally became almost unbearable to watch because no person can act the way these two children, because that’s how they acted, in real life. Given that I graduated a big high school a few years ago, I don’t ever recall anyone that resembles either of these two.

The story of Boyhood should have been called Adulthood. To me, it was the tragic story of a single mom who has to care for two children while not having a well-paying job, and when she does decide to go to college, it becomes her downfall. You simply assume that college will help you towards a better life, but Olivia Evans, Patricia Arquette, was not that lucky. Either through a teacher or a student, she never found the husband she truly deserved. The one she did deserve, however, came at a time too late for her simply because she did not have the patience to wait for him. Ultimately, the movie ends with her realizing that her life was for nothing except to have two children who did not really care about her, and now she was to live alone having had terrible luck with men.

If Boyhood was all about Olivia Evans, I would have loved this movie more. Ethan Hawke’s character of Mason Evans Sr. would have served well if the movie was also called Adulthood. You see the growth of his character from a single dad who has to ultimately grow up to be the father his children need even if that means having to give up his prized car for a minivan. His character humanized the movie even more for me because you witnessed what it was like for the other half of a divorcee that really wasn’t struggling by having to raise two children. Even though he did not have stable jobs as he matured as a person, once he had to take care of two more people in his life, his character was given the satisfaction of finally being an adult that is able to care for his family by being the husband his family needed. In the long run, divorcing Olivia was the best decision Hawke’s character could have done because it enabled him to grow.

All in all, this movie was great watch and a solid A. You feel invested in these characters’ lives and how they themselves grow both physically and mentally. Despite having issues with the two children, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette’s performances are what made this movie worth watching. Because it is a slice-of-life movie, it can appear as a gimmick. But once you really delve into the movie’s meanings, it is so much more. Overall, this movie deserves an A both for its simple story, yet its breathtaking cinematic achievement. I did not want to talk much about this achievement because I feel it would have detracted from the movie if you only saw it as a 12-year film in the making. But once you've watched it, you'll see how much of an achievement it really is.