2014: Week 33: Boyhood

Boyhood

Genre: Drama

Main Players:  Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette

General Gist: Following the life of a young man from 5 to 18.

Deb's Take:
This movie won several film awards, to which I'm not familiar with at all, but I think the fact that it won awards says something.  So, this movie was interesting and fascinating in two particular ways for me.  One, it followed the life of a family over a 12 year period, and ACTUALLY filmed over a 12 year period to allow for the actors to age with the movie.  I liked this premise because I feel like it kept the characters and personalities real.  Two, I am amazed that this could be pulled off.  Each year a different piece of the movie was recorded to eventually follow the actors over a 12 year "true" history.  That was cool and neat and impressive.

As far as the movie itself, I felt it was slow, and unclimatic.  Which in a way, I think that was the point.  Following a boy from age 5-18 and touching the highlights (or often in his case the low lights) of his life made me very aware, that on average, life is pretty average for many.  Now, his family life was a little screwed up in a way I couldn't really relate to, but I think all our lives are on the verge of weird and his was just a different kind of weird for me.  The acting wasn't outstanding, and the storyline was slow.  I do feel like I walked out of the movie with this sense of "OMG, I'm 43 years old and I better get going with my life because 12 years can pass super fast and then I'm 55 and what do I have to show for it?"   All in all the idea was captivating, but I think the award for this movie were for the timeline not the storyline.

Deb's Rate: Rent it

Tiff's Take:
It heard this movie was good and it seemed interesting and artsy.  I usually like those.  And I didn't not like it.  As Deb said, the premise behind this movie was really cool.  It's amazing how a 6 year old boy can turn out to be this 18 year old kid that doesn't seem like the kid you would think he would be.  I guess that's the amazing thing about watching an actual boy grow up in front of you over a two hour time span.  So that part of the movie was good.  

But it just felt way too long.  There wasn't a lot going on during a lot of the movie.  Yeah, I think that was part of the point but unfortunately it didn't make for a very interesting movie.  The parts where there was a little more going on felt unstable.  And instabilities in movies make me feel weird.  Is it weird that it makes me feel weird?!  Anyway, just a so so one for me.  I wanted to like it better than I did.       

Tiff's Rate: Matinee

Preview: The Giver