boyhood

Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater and Ellar Coltrane in Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD
Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater and Ellar Coltrane in Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD

Ethan Hawke is the motion picture poster boy de jour starring in both the impressive PREDESTINATION and Richard Linklater’s brilliant BOYHOOD. Both projects are about time travel- the former speculative, the latter real and documented, the cinematic equivalent to time in a bottle, a masterful manipulation of time’s trajectory, its tidal sweep, and the magic in the minutia.

BOYHOOD was shot over 144 months, a 3 -4 day shoot every year, and is a chronicle of a kid, Mason, as he develops from age 6 to 18.

It’s the simplest of stories yet is a mesmerising mosaic of the mundane triumphing over mediocrity, a mind-boggling melding of the epic and the intimate.

Linklater and Hawke have dabbled in the chrono-continuum in their Delpy/Hawke Sunrise trilogy, but BOYHOOD is a single serve helping of a human version of those nature films that show pupae burgeoning into maturity.

Watching the chrysalis Mason evolve is an extraordinary added dimension to what would ordinarily still be a very fine drama. And of course the added fascination is watching the actor, Ellar Coltrane, “grow up” before our very eyes.

The same can be said of other characters in the film, most specifically Lorelei Linklater who plays Mason’s sister, Samantha.

We also see the children’s parents played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, age on screen, all adding to the verisimilitude of the piece.

BOYHOOD is manufacturing at its most creative and artistic, as movie making master, Linklater, links vignettes shot over a number of years into a wholly satisfying, compulsively watchable three hour opus.

Performances are uniformly and unswervingly excellent, from the core four, to all the satellite characters that come into their orbit, from extended to blended families, school friends and fleeting acquaintances.

Like an exquisite quilt, BOYHOOD is a wondrous weave through quotidian that marvels and revels in the ordinary to a degree that elevates it to the extraordinary.

Devoid of CGI and special effects, BOYHOOD is nonetheless an astonishing event film that champions the block building of parenting and education over the base destructive centre of blockbuster movie fare.