The story opens on a young five year boy, Mason (Ellar Contrane), as we move through his life, his music, his era, his home, and even the public’s hatred of George Bush as the [then] President. The time and tone of the film is so believable, that every detail – down to smoking in public restaurants – is there. His parents (Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke) are divorced, but as we watch them in their very first scene, it’s blatantly obvious that they ‘appear’ younger than they would in present day real life. That’s because director Richard Linklater takes us on Mason’s journey of ‘Boyhood’ unlike any other coming-of-age film because it’s shot over twelve years in real time.
Typical of divorce Hawke portrays the fun-father full of presents and weekend getaways, while Arquette is the single mother, the disciplinarian, shooting demands of homework and chores. And so the film covers a range of modern day disasters…ex’s, new husbands, step kids, blended families and the education that comes from the changes of learning-as-we-go. The movie becomes “what is the definition of family?’ But it also becomes so much more…
As seen through the eyes of Mason, electronics move from video games to cell phones, to texting, to Facebook, as the parents – that once though they could harness their son’s attention – lose him to social media. But they’re completely wrong because unlike adults – who use social media to escape and isolate from others – Mason’s generation uses social media to bring them closer to their peers.
The audience gets a birds-eye-view of life in one household, with a Ghost-of-Christmas-Future superior position over the film’s characters…the mistakes made, the lessons learned. Mason navigates the discovery of HARRY POTTER and questions like ‘Will Barack Obama be President?’, or will there be yet another Star Wars sequel. The answers of course, are ‘yes,’ but it’s the experiencing it, the living it, a boyhood, in two hours and 20 minutes that took him more than a decade.
Mason lives through his mother’s journey, her marriages, divorces, all the while a free-floating artist himself, who eventually escapes into his self-created zone. Children of a baby boomer often learn to ask for less than their parents who sought to obtain so much – cars, homes, money, wealth – only to want to downsize it all in the end. His parents spend a lot of time advising Mason yet they have no idea what they’re talking about. The film’s ultimate question is are our children tired of our mistakes or addicted to them?
Mason watches the world move rapidly and at the same time slowly. He doesn’t say much but you can feel his vulnerability and his strength just by brushing by him. Truly the most amazing part of the film is that when the director cast Ellar Contrane as Ethan Hawke’s son he had no idea that he’d really grow up to look like him. ♕♚♛ 1/2