Boyhood - Movie Review

Woah This is going to be a difficult movie to review. 

Filmed over 12 years we watch as both the characters and actors grow up before our very eyes, in this authentic story that encapsulates childhood, parenting and overall just life in general. My initial reaction to this story behind this film and its 12 years filming time was suspicion. I assumed that the premise was going to be used as a gimmick, but after seeing the subtle and natural transitions between the years it does feel well done and authentically. Although at the same time I wouldn't say it was an absolute necessity to the story being told.

Anyway for the rest of this review I will try to review this film solely on the film and separate from the time lapse filming style. I believe that the film should be able to stand on its own. 

So, lets start the good bits. The film is acted and written brilliantly for the majority, with each of the actors just giving a realistic but also nuanced performance as the film progresses. With Ellar Coltrane giving an accurate performance that ties certain characteristic to certain stages of growing up. Each of the parents also give fantastic natural performances. Even though there are some missteps here and there but they can easily be overlooked in the grand scheme of things.

Then we come to the story, this both makes and somewhat breaks the story. Without going into too much detail the film follows these characters growing up and gives us a glimpse into their lives at roughly yearly intervals. This provides us with a chance to get to know these characters and to see the events that shaped their lives.

The problem is that the film often feels like a small collection of short stories, which are all fantastically well done, but also fail to hang together perfectly as a whole. This is due to the fact that some of the character transitions seem to be done so rapidly, and we always seem to miss them changing. We also don't really see the effect and the impact that these events have on the characters, due to the fact that the story just continues on. This also means that many of the story threads are just dropped completely and the characters just seem to move on. 

There also seems to be a lot of filler especially through the later stages of the movie. This in addition to the film seeming to becoming more pretentious towards the end, much like the main character. But nearing the end, the film seems to be searching for a grand meaning and message that it want to shove in your face, rather than have the films story and characters teach you the lesson. The film also went on for 5-10mins more that it should have, it seemed to have missed the opportune time to end and just decided to keep going.

Next we come to the overall design, which included a fantastic and fitting soundtrack, but also included fairly boring a bland cinematography. Not to say it was bad, but there wasn't anything that stood out as being particularly good. One positive point was the inclusion of nostalgic items and events, that did seem to draw me back into a nostalgic frame of mind.

Overall what we have here is a film that feels like an authentic story of growing up and all the trials and tribulations that surround it. It's unfortunate then that the film takes a few to many missteps and fails to create a story that somewhat works together as whole. There are also a  few to many dropped story lines and a bit to many scenes that seem to be filler. Although for the most part the film consists of mesmerizing moments, that can bring you to tears one moment and grinning ear to ear the next.

Its difficult for me to rate the film, as a technical achievement I would give it an 8, but take that away the films flaws mean that I feel it deserves a 7, so i'm going to rate it

Rating: 7.5/10