Richard Linklater's Boyhood

[Sgt.Pepper]

Linklater has been working on this project since 2002, shooting sequences each year, in a drama that, without giving too much away, stars Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as parents of a seven-year-old boy played by Ellar Coltran, in a role that will see him age naturally on screen over time. Linklater is a genius and I'm eagerly waiting to see what he has finally amassed.

 

[redhawk23]

Man, I've been hearing about this movie for years. I can't believe it has actually premiered. Slashfilm reviewed it, they said its great. I haven't heard about release plans. I know their having a hard time clearing a lot of the music they used.

Sidenote: I've heard there is an entertaining conversation, filmed in 2005 or so about the possibility of further Star Wars films.

 

[Lencho01]

[YT]Ys-mbHXyWX4[/YT]

 

[Kane52630]

Yeah I heard about this movie for years, it looks incredible just on the concept alone.

 

[Lencho01]

Boyhood Budget: How Much Did It Cost To Shoot A Movie For 12 Years?

 

[Lencho01]

Ethan Hawke Explains How ‘Star Wars’ Ended Up in ‘Boyhood’



Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater Talk BOYHOOD, Tackling the Ambitious Project, Deleted Scenes, Keeping in Contact, Pop Culture Trends, and More

 

[MadVillainy]

Im surprised this movie isnt getting enough attention. I mean from like major news outlets like CNN, NPR, etc.

The whole "gimmick" behind it is a very interesting one and an incredible way to tell a cinematic coming of age story. Beyond that I hear it's a really good film

 

[Lencho01]

Clip...

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[Lencho01]

TV spot...

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[Dispatch Ninja]

Stupid limited releases.

 

[Rocketman]

People probably don't care as much because it isn't Transformers.

 

[Lord]

Filmmakers like Richard Linklater keep making critically aclaimed films and showing what the medium is capable of, but they never realy get much attention outside certain festivals, i'm nor certain how the Oscars work, but he never got nominated for a single one from what i see. I guess it has to do with him mostly doing small dramatic/ romantic movies, instead of going into criminal or other types of films that usualy get you more mainstream attention, though i do remember School of Rock being quite a success at the time.

I guess it depends, i actualy haven't watched one of his films yet, some of them seem fascinating, expecially Boyhood.

 

[MadVillainy]

This was a really good movie. It felt really authentic. I think we can all relate to multiple points in the story. The acting was good. I especially liked Ethan Hawke's character arc over the years. It really resonated with me

The one problem that it was really long and it felt it. Every scene did have a purpose so I'm not sure what I'd cut. But yeah at 2 hrs 40 mins the movie does feel like it's dragging at times.

I think Linklater deserves a best director nod for sure. But he probably won't get it. I'd give Hawke a nomination too for best supporting actor, but that race is so packed I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't fit in.

8/10

 

[Pink Ranger]

An excellent movie, though it doesn't really scream "BP of the year" to me, it is definitely a worthwhile contender.

It does take a little while to get going, I found the writing in the first "age segment" of the movie a bit hacky, but after the story gains momentum, it is a visceral experience like no other.

But Hawke is a realistic contender for Best Supporting Actor. Patricia Arquette too, but her role is a little more low-key, and her character doesn't get the lengthy speeches that Hawke's character gets, the kind that tend to get awards attention for an actor.

 

[kguillou]

I just caught this yesterday and still processing my feelings but overall really liked it. I thought the first half of the movie was GREAT stuff but as the kid got into his teenage years he became really unlikeable and weird. He became this really introverted emo kid that barely emoted when he was in his late teenage years. I was hoping the movie would have more of a storyline to it but it really just ends up being a collection of key moments from this kid's life. The movie really drags in some places and I definitely felt the 2h and 40 mins.

Overall, I absolutely applaud Linkater's experiment and I think it was mostly a success but could have been better executed. Alas, it could not have been easy to put together a cohesive narrative over a 12 year filming period as your actors are evolving and changing.

 

[GregComicFan]

I've seen several of the critically acclaimed Oscar contenders this year... I've seen:

Boyhood
Nightcrawler
Gone Girl
American Sniper
Birdman
I started to watch the Grand Budphest Hotel but fell asleep (it was really late... haha)

and my wife is dying to see The Theory of Everything so I'll be seeing that soon too.

I think we (my wife and I) are the only two people on Earth who did NOT like Boyhood.

Yeah, it's cool they filmed one movie over 12 years. That was a monumental task to keep all the crew/cast together and keeping the vision and story and production straight and intact for 12 years to come out with a finished product... but other than that, I found the film to be extremely dull.

It's 3 hours long and boring. We almost turned the movie off (we ordered it on DirectTV) but we wanted to see the ending just to see what happens.

They story was about the same quality you can expect from a Lifetime for Women channel movie. Also, it was cliched to the max. The mom goes from the usual "drunk abusive father" to the "military man who is all about strict rules and order" and then the biological dad was Mr. Carefree... haven't we seen this in a billion other movies?

I didn't like the main character (the boy)... he was also boring....

The actress who played the sister (I believe it's the directors daughter) had some cringe-worthy acting... the scene of her inside the car with the mom and they are arguing displayed the girl couldn't act at that stage of her life.

Some of the lines of dialogue in the movie were horrendous. I'll point out the last line of the film...

So the boy meets a girl in his college dormroom. Then we go to some canyon and they get high and walk around... and then this girl character who we hardly know sits down and says "Yeah know, sometimes I think we don't capture the moment. Sometimes I think the moment captures us" or something like that...

WTF?

Who talks like that?

I work with high school age kids and I also remember being in high school... and college... no one says silly lines like that.

There's so many cringe-worthy lines of dialogue when the boy becomes high school/college age.

Any ways, American Sniper and Birdman wipe the floor with Boyhood.

Other than it being cool they filmed it over 12 years, Boyhood belongs on ABC Family Channel or Lifetime Tv Network.

 

[Pink Ranger]

My feeling on why Mason ends up as he does:

Spoiler

-The movie isn't so much about the plot, but is almost a piece of performance art in and of itself, and the crafting of the movie is the real story.

-One of the elements of crafting the movie is that Linklater had to accept everything that happens in the intervening 12 years and integrate it into the film. If the kids each turned out to be really crappy actors, that's what he as an artist would have to accept and integrate it into his creation. If Ethan Hawke died in a plane crash in Year 6, again Linklater would have to accept it and integrate it into his film.

-Ellar Coltrane really is a moody, emo, alternative guy. That's the evolution of the material that Linklater had to accept, and integrate it into his creation.

-Because the film is more a piece of creator-driven multi-media performance art than a traditional story on film, Linklater the director is the hidden 5th principal character in the movie. Accordingly, with the presence of a hidden 5th character, the movie has a meta quality.

-Mason becomes an unusually introspective and reflective young adult because, after 12 years, he has begun to perceive on some abstract level that his life is being observed and recorded, in a way that he can't put his finger on but he knows is there.

 

[GregComicFan]

My feeling on why Mason ends up as he does:

Spoiler

-The movie isn't so much about the plot, but is almost a piece of performance art in and of itself, and the crafting of the movie is the real story.

-One of the elements of crafting the movie is that Linklater had to accept everything that happens in the intervening 12 years and integrate it into the film. If the kids each turned out to be really crappy actors, that's what he as an artist would have to accept and integrate it into his creation. If Ethan Hawke died in a plane crash in Year 6, again Linklater would have to accept it and integrate it into his film.

-Ellar Coltrane really is a moody, emo, alternative guy. That's the evolution of the material that Linklater had to accept, and integrate it into his creation.

-Because the film is more a piece of creator-driven multi-media performance art than a traditional story on film, Linklater the director is the hidden 5th principal character in the movie. Accordingly, with the presence of a hidden 5th character, the movie has a meta quality.

-Mason becomes an unusually introspective and reflective young adult because, after 12 years, he has begun to perceive on some abstract level that his life is being observed and recorded, in a way that he can't put his finger on but he knows is there.

I think that's reading way too deeply into the movie... but hey, whatever floats your boat lol.... I dont think the boy (mason) is realizing that Richard Linklater is the omnipotent and omniscient presence in his life and knows he's being recorded.... so Boyhood is the Matrix? lol

 

[Pink Ranger]

I think that's reading way too deeply into the movie... but hey, whatever floats your boat lol.... I dont think the boy (mason) is realizing that Richard Linklater is the omnipotent and omniscient presence in his life and knows he's being recorded.... so Boyhood is the Matrix? lol

The reason I see the film that way is I was commenting to a friend of mine that I felt, like you did, that some of the writing of the film, especially in the early acts, was kind of hacky. He pointed out to me that one of the underlying themes to watch out for is Linklater himself as a filmmaker grows in maturity and perspective during the 12 years this film is made. So the film is one where the director grows older in the time it is made, alongside the actors we see.

 

[Kane52630]

I saw it in the theater months ago and I very much loved the movie. There was a lot of things that connected with me and the performances was really great. For me it was the fastest 3 hour movie I've seen... I didn't want it to be over.

 

[redhawk23]

Just from the time period it was set and filmed, the time it was trying to capture this was the most oddly relatable movie I've seen, if only in surface details. I'm a few years older than Coltrane so a lot of the pop cultural aspects of the film (the Harry Potter release party etc) were right in my wheelhouse.

The ending of the film really got me though with the kid going to college and then film cutting to the credits set to Arcade Fire's "Deep Blue."

Deep Blue is off of Arcade Fire's 2010 album The Suburbs. The Suburbs came out about 2 weeks the first time I left home for college and its themes were absolutely bound up in a lot of the feelings and thoughts I had at the time. I listened to it pretty much on loop for a lot of my freshman year.

Really the album as a whole would make a great companion to Boyhood but the use of Deep Blue specifically is a genius move. The lyrics fit perfectly.

[YT]cDIRT_NEMxo[/YT]




From what I've heard, Linklater didn't actually initially license the song and instead invited Arcade Fire's singer Win Butler to an early screening and got permission afterwards.

 

[redhawk23]

Upon revisiting some Arcade Fire videos after my last post, I discovered that the actress that played Mason's girlfriend is actually in the short film Spike Jonze directed to accompany the album The Suburbs. Zoe Graham is the actress's name.

 

[Kyle]

Release: October 11, 2016

DIRECTOR-APPROVED EDITION:

New 2K digital transfer, supervised by director Richard Linklater, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New audio commentary featuring Linklater and nine members of the film’s cast and crew
New documentary chronicling the film’s production, featuring footage shot over the course of its twelve years
New discussion featuring Linklater and actors Patricia Arquette and Ellar Coltrane, moderated by producer John Pierson
New conversation between Coltrane and actor Ethan Hawke
New video essay by critic Michael Koresky about time in Linklater’s films, narrated by Coltrane
Collection of portraits of the cast and crew by photographer Matt Lankes, narrated with personal thoughts from Linklater, Arquette, Hawke, Coltrane, and producer Cathleen Sutherland
PLUS: An essay by novelist Jonathan Lethem

Hopefully the special features are a lot this time around, if so it would definitely be a double dip. This was one of my favorite films these past couple years. It's a film that I can definitely see myself changing and growing up with, I'm gradually becoming more and more like the Mason Sr. at the beginning of the film which is only a couple years away. It'll definitely be a very intriguing film to further grow up with.