Director Richard Linklater has completed one of the most important films ever made about the American family.
“Making the decision to have a child—it is momentous.
It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” ― Elizabeth Stone.
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On Monday night, Richard Linklater’s new film Boyhood premiered at the Museum of Modern Art’s film center here in New York City. The film’s director, stars and producers were in attendance. It was a lovely low-key evening, informed by Linklater’s relaxed personal style. To see the man casually chatting with all comers, you wouldn’t think he had just completed one of the most important films ever made about the American family.
When you see a film like Linklater’s Boyhood, you leave with the nagging suspicion you have just seen directly into the heart of its director.
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When you see a film like Linklater’s Boyhood, you leave with the nagging suspicion you have just seen directly into the heart of its director. To my knowledge, Linklater only has one child, (Lorelei Linklater who appears in his film), but as any parent knows, it only takes one child to set your feet on that singular path to joy and sadness intertwined, that children represent. And it is this “both and” of simultaneous and contradictory truths that suffuses the film with deep authenticity, invoking over and over again small shocks of self-recognition in its viewers.
Linklater does not choose to rage against the casual injustices of family life, nor does he privilege overblown invocations of childhood wonder. What Linklater brings us instead, is a clear eyed examination of the stoicism of American children, as Mason, the film’s protagonist, is dragged through the unyielding emotional disempowerment that is the daily experience of children in America.
Actor Ellar Coltrane first appears in the film at age six, a child of an acrimonious divorce which will come to inform every aspect of his life. Over a period of twelve years, Linklater brought back his cast of actors, allowing us to see Mason grow up into a young man over the course of the film.
Linklater does not choose to rage against the casual injustices of family life, nor does he privilege overblown invocations of childhood wonder.
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This remarkable choice, unprecedented in feature filmmaking, will gain the film much visibility. But it is no simple gimmick. It is uncanny to see the cast members age and change, and it adds a degree of authenticity that seeps into the viewer at a subliminal level. The shock of Mason’s body changing as the awkward distortions of puberty launch him toward adulthood is both beautiful and painful to watch.
Boyhood tells its story in leaps and bounds. Houses change, husbands are discovered and divorced. Cities come and go. But the film is not so much about how to navigate the arcs of change as it an invocation of how we are powerless to slow the roiling gait of changes into and out of our lives. Most especially if we are children.
Mason’s mother, Olivia, as portrayed by Patricia Arquette, is a portrait of puzzled intensity. She’s a mother who is struggling to raise the standard of living for herself and her children, ultimately to no one’s satisfaction, least of all her own.
What is so powerful about Arquette’s character is the clarity with which she invokes the blunt economic realities that underpin middle class life. Working parents surrender intimate daily contact and emotional connection with their children in order to better feed and house them. It is this self-sacrificing expression of parental duty that ultimately alienates them from the very children they seek to better provide for.
The pressure to sacrifice intimacy in service to security underlies a moment of realization for Olivia late in the film. It is also the moment in which Arquette wins her Academy award, (and she will win it).
The pressure to sacrifice intimacy in service to security underlies a moment of realization for Olivia late in the film. It is also the moment in which Arquette wins her Academy award, (and she will win it).
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Only Mason Sr., played by Ethan Hawke, shows any spark of rebellion against the martyrdom of parenthood and he gets little credit for it. Most likely because as a two weekend a month dad, he experiences little about the grinding day to day process of raising children. But ultimately, it is not the absence of Mason Sr., but Olivia’s frustrated narrative of parental sacrifice that is so deeply wearying to her children.
Hawke’s head on portrayal of Mason’s father is remarkably honest and deeply believable. Mason Sr. is an enthusiastic hedonist, who, after jumping ship for a time, returns to his children’s lives while maintaining a healthy distance from the darker reality of their Mother’s daily existence. He is the kind of person who insures his own interests come first, while being a loving father none the less. It is this seemingly impossible contradiction that ultimately makes Mason Sr. so real for us.
Meanwhile, the children in this film, both Mason Jr. and his sister Samantha, (eloquently played by Lorelei Linklater), do what millions of children do every day. They mark time, sidestep the sometimes catastrophic outcomes of their parent’s life decisions, and keep their own counsel, resigned to wait for the powerlessness of childhood to finally end.
Over and over, Mason and Samantha are encouraged to pick a path in life, to work hard, to succeed. It makes you wonder how we as parents might hold off on our fears and give our children more time to explore the possibilities in life. Is the specter of the video game playing couch potato so terrifying an outcome for parents that we must goad our children toward the very symbols of security and success that have left us feeling empty and unfulfilled in our own lives?
It is in the last minutes of Boyhood that we find out what Linklater has no doubt been witness to in his own life. That our children are so much more than the fears and anxieties we host for them.
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And finally there is Ellar Coltrane himself, the young actor who plays Mason. He is an amazing screen presence. It is something that happens around his eyes. Something that happens as his character Mason carefully watches those around him for clues to what they will demand of him next.
And just when you have resigned yourself to his silence, to his role as a powerless witness in his own life, something miraculous happen. Mason finds his voice and begins speaking in the way that young adults do when they are finally breaking free of the drudgery of being parented. Mason starts asking questions, forming theories and reflecting on the world. It is in the last minutes of Boyhood that we find out what Linklater has no doubt been witness to in his own life: That our children are so much more than the fears and anxieties we host for them. They redeem us through their own innate resilience.
Any of us who have ever parented a child, will see our parenting selves in Boyhood, both the good and bad of it. What is startling is when the film simultaneously invokes our childhood self for us, overlaying our sympathies for parent and child alike. Perhaps it is at this intersection of dualities that Linklater is suggesting we seek answers on how to set aside our fears and connect with our children and ourselves.
Go see this film. It is transcendent filmmaking alchemy that puts Linklater firmly in the company of the world’s greatest directors.
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Go see this film. There isn’t a single actor in it who isn’t amazing. There isn’t a misstep in how it is crafted and who it speaks to. It is transcendent filmmaking alchemy that puts Linklater firmly in the company of the world’s greatest directors.
Boyhood opens July 11 in select theaters, and nationwide on July 18.
Visit the Official Boyhood Site
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The Ugly and Violent Death of Gender Conformity
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I also really loved the movie and was blown away at just how unique it is. It certainly left me thinking.
Good call on that prediction.