Richard Linklater's coming of age epic Boyhood is a cinematic marvel. Through a whopping 12 years of production, this film's scope is awe-inspiring. There are few experiences in art where we have the opportunity to grow, learn, and experience with a set of characters over a period of more than a decade. In this way, Boyhood is not only something to be experienced, but something to be sought out, shared, and beloved. Transfixing in its presentation and clocking in at just over 165 minutes, there is a shocking lack of grandiosity and ostentatiousness, and instead favoring humility on an intimate and empathetic scale.
Every scene in this film is carried with the weight of a life, and it almost feels like we have an opportunity to interact, and create a life well lived. The entirety of this body of work is equal parts enriching, devastating, kindred, forlorn, and alive. The whirlwind of time that we are cast into is breathtaking, almost like a 12-year time capsule has been unleashed - the war on terror, Gameboys, iPods, the housing crisis of 2008, and countless other pieces of history that cement our characters' lives in an intimately vulnerable and nostalgic reality.
It's so interesting to be in this kind of perspective. We are just beyond the realm of experience where we are so close to this evolution of a person, yet not so much that we are overstepping. The events of the film flow over us like a waterfall, changing temperature as the mood of the world we are in sways from bitter cold, to loving warmth, to something in between that I can't quite put my finger on. This kind of divine display of sonder is a blessing - a true coming of age journey.
Boyhood has spoken to me in a way that not many other movies have. With my own son on the way, this masterpiece made me identify with a great deal of our characters' experiences. The power of cinema on those who enjoy it is endlessly magical, and fatherhood - boyhood - is a red-letter day.
Every scene in this film is carried with the weight of a life, and it almost feels like we have an opportunity to interact, and create a life well lived. The entirety of this body of work is equal parts enriching, devastating, kindred, forlorn, and alive. The whirlwind of time that we are cast into is breathtaking, almost like a 12-year time capsule has been unleashed - the war on terror, Gameboys, iPods, the housing crisis of 2008, and countless other pieces of history that cement our characters' lives in an intimately vulnerable and nostalgic reality.
It's so interesting to be in this kind of perspective. We are just beyond the realm of experience where we are so close to this evolution of a person, yet not so much that we are overstepping. The events of the film flow over us like a waterfall, changing temperature as the mood of the world we are in sways from bitter cold, to loving warmth, to something in between that I can't quite put my finger on. This kind of divine display of sonder is a blessing - a true coming of age journey.
Boyhood has spoken to me in a way that not many other movies have. With my own son on the way, this masterpiece made me identify with a great deal of our characters' experiences. The power of cinema on those who enjoy it is endlessly magical, and fatherhood - boyhood - is a red-letter day.
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