Summer Movie Memories: Boyhood Is A Cinematic Treasure

In Summer Movie Memories, I'll be looking at summer movies from Summer 2014 and analyzing what really made them stand out this summer, for reasons both good and bad. In this final entry, I look at the masterpiece Boyhood, so obviously, SPOILERS for Boyhood lie ahead. 


When I was thinking about Boyhood for this entry, so many of the films excellent aspects just overwhelmed me. But something that hit me for the first time is the films lack of major events other cinematic depictions of youth always hold in high regard.  The prom, graduation ceremonies, Christmas celebrations are all forged in favor of showing smaller, more quiet moments in the life of Mason, our protagonist. He doesn't get his growth from "humorous" prom antics, but rather a visit to his sisters college.

I recently wrote on my Facebook about how events like prom and graduation are cool, but frankly, those events themselves don't really change you as a person. It comes from moments that stand out in your memory years later despite them seeming mundane when they were occurring. Boyhood understands this all too well, realizing there's much more to the beauty and tragedy of life than in many of the events other coming-of-age stories tackle. Richard Linklater, the writer and director of this masterful film, takes audiences on a journey simultaneously familiar and illuminating, one where our seemingly ordinary lives are revealed to have much more to them than we could have ever imagined.

God, so much of this movie is just beyond words in its ingeniousness. Linklater really taps into reality like few other movies ever have. Take how the film doesn't give definitive happy conclusions to the children raised by the abusive husband Masons mother briefly marries. This could come across as a storytelling crutch used to dismiss coming up with satisfying endings, but instead works as a way to mirror how, in real life, easy answers don't come by often. The result of that storyline, as well as others in the film, remain a mystery to both Mason and the audience. Everyone's going through their own story in life, and sometimes, the course of that story means we just aren't allowed to find out how their tale will end. Boyhood understands this truth beautifully and uses it to its extraordinary advantage.

I could go on and on about the beauty of Boyhood, but really, one of its best aspects is its most simple; scenes where we can just see Mason interact with other characters. Texas, my home state, is a perfect location for the film, as it's wide variety of differing landscapes and types of cities is the perfect way to mirror the wide gamut of obstacles and events one encounters in their existence. Those environments make for the best backdrop for those where Mason just chats with other people, such as a moment where he has an extended conversation with a girl from his school.

You can experience a lot of pain in life, but you can also feel a lot of joy. There's sorrow, but there's also joy. Very rarely are those emotions dealt out in equal quantities, but maybe that's how it should be. Boyhood manages to show us how in our everyday lives, we grow in more subtle and beautiful ways than you might imagine. Linklater allows a glimpse into how formative feeling all those emotional ups and downs are, and its beautiful to witness. Boyhood is a magnificent feature that has left me in awe in the way it beautifully tackles the intricacies of growing up.