Boyhood

It's experiment time! Richard Linklater's latest film Boyhood follows the coming of age of young boy Mason Evans Jr (Ellar Coltrane). The twist being that Linklater has intermittently shot the film over a twelve year period, so we literally see Evans Jr grow before our very own eyes. Predictably this approach has had the high bow critics drooling, with the film appearing at the number one spot on many film of the year lists. However, is such adulation worthy for a film that has numerous issues. Firstly, why such plaudits for a technical approach that is hardly original? Francois Truffaut indirectly did the same thing for his character Antoine Doinel back in the 1950's and there are a number of TV documentary series that began in the 1960's that have been following their real life protagonists ever since. For something more contemporary Michael Winterbottom spent five years filming his characters for his 2012 release Everyday. Secondly, it becomes pretty clear early on that Coltrane can't act for toffee and gets worse as the film progresses. By the time he hits his teenage years its hard to tell if he's actually just given up acting or if his character is just reverting to the standard mumbler that permeates virtually all of Linklater's films of this ilk. Also, not much really happens in the near three hour running time, apart from Mason's divorced mum (played by Patricia Arquette) repetitively choosing unsuitable partner after unsuitable partner. There's also some seriously clunky moments in the script, the low point being when the children are being treated to a meal by their mother and are moaning about their lot in life (i.e. indirectly blaming Arquette) when the manager of the restaurant they are in comes over and announces what a special person their mother is due to some advice she had given him in the past. How handy! On the plus side, there's some decent acting to enjoy. Linklater's real life daughter Lorelei is fun as Mason's sister and Marco Perella (as one of Arquette's partners) is terrifying as a controlling aggressive drunk. The performance of the film goes to Arquette though. I know that's hard to believe as she's never really dazzled throughout her career - Plus, can you actually name a film she's been in over the last ten years? Here though she's totally convincing as the single mum who does all she can to financially keep her family afloat, including a heart breaking scene where she breaks down due to her believing she's been a bad parent. In effect, though this is called Boyhood, it's more about the adults of the story as they aid (for good or bad) the development of Mason's personality. On that front, more could have been made of Ethan Hawke's absent Dad, but it's clear that Linklater had thrown his lot in with Mason and he could hardly change things halfway through. Something Hawke has said about the film did strike me though, calling it "Tolstoy-esque in scope". I can only assume ol' Ethan hasn't read much Leo. This isn't even Toy Story-esque in scope. Rating: 6/10.