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the audience applauded

good back-story, and good acting

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I have never related more to a movie in my entire life and that might be why I adore Boyhood. Richard Linklater used the same actors over the span of twelve years to make this movie and it is not just a gimmick. He captures small things that we tend to forget about while growing up, or, for adults, watching your kids grow up. Sometimes the child acting is rough around the edges but Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette are spot on and phenomenal. If someone else didn't care for this movie because it didn't touch them, I could even understand why, but this movie pounds through a very profound message. Our lives are all made up merely of moments that fall on top of one another. Sometimes you don't feel as you expect to in each moment, but at the end of it all, all these little moments add up to a life and reflecting on it all can be quite daunting. A lot of the deep messages come straight out of the mouths of the boy, Mason, and other side characters. This can be interpreted as bad writing, but when I look back to not so long ago when I was his age, I can see the similarities in our thinking. He talks like a lot of teens do and watching him makes you think about your own past and present angsty moments. Linklater specializes in films that portray realistic characters with realistic dialogue in realistic situations. This allows the audience to emotionally connect with his films. Boyhood is something special because there is at least one character for everyone that they can identify with. The movie is 2 hours 45 minutes but it flies by just like life does. This movie is nostalgic for anyone who grew up in the 2000s and is touching in so many ways. Boyhood is a modern classic.

My biggest focus in a film tends to be the characters and interactions, and that is a huge problem in this film, and a big reason why I don't tend to like gimmick films in general. This film seems to be more infatuated with its gimmick than telling an intriguing story.Production started from 2002 and finished in 2013, and covers a family, focusing on a boy named Mason as he grows up. Reportedly, the script hadn't been completed by the time filming started beyond basic plot points and an ending, and it unfortunately shows badly in the final product. The most basic elements of storytelling are blatantly mishandled as the film chugs along at a snail's pace through its nearly three hour runtime seeming to make things up as it goes, which is likely what happened given the gimmick. It's essentially a slice of life story with a few plot devices placed to try to give the film some narrative to follow. It doesn't push any boundaries or try to be creative in any way other than in taking ten years to film, which is hardly a matter of talent rather than one of patience.The film starts off with its strongest conflicts right at the start, as the mother, Olivia, is recently divorced and falls for her teacher, Bill, who becomes an abusive alcoholic. This feels like one of the few elements that was placed in the story from the beginning, but even it didn't grip me. I grew up with an abusive alcoholic father, and Marco Perella's performance as Bill didn't convince me, as the subtleties seemed off. While it seemed right on paper, the execution felt like he was saying his lines off a teleprompter. Anyways, the movie shortly moves past that and goes on to focus on the family as Mason and Samantha who are now in high school, and it's nothing we haven't seen a million times before, and experienced at some point in our lives, which I suppose is the point, but it seems counter-intuitive to go to the movies to experience the worst part of your life over again. As Mason grows up throughout the movie, I find him less and less likeable as he gets extremely pretentious and depressing, to which point I agree with all those who antagonize him and call him out on his teenage melodrama. Samantha is not much better as she is unreasonably rude to her mother, who is by far the most likeable character in the entire movie. Mason Sr. is alright, and he gets a nice positive arc from being a loser to getting his life together and being a more active father throughout their lives, but I don't feel Mason Jr. quite follows along the same lines. He's simply not matured by the end of the film and it left me very disappointed. The real climax of the film involves Olivia having a mental breakdown about how her life has turned out, and it's actually quite effective, but short-lived, as the movie feels it more important to end with an artsy-fartsy yet cliche scene with teens blabbing about life while watching the sunset at the beach. Seriously, teenagers are just awful.In other words, this film is basically my life with a whole lot less conflict and an even worse teenager than myself. If this concept had worked out to make an entertaining film, it would have been an incredibly lucky lightning in a bottle scenario, and unfortunately that didn't happen. The family didn't have much chemistry, and the children didn't grow into as strong of actors as the parents were from the start. I understand the attempt at becoming a cultural phenomenon, but the excruciating runtime is ultimately undeserved. It can be an interesting diversion for some people, but I'm not entirely surprised it didn't resonate as well as may have been expected through its lengthy production.

There were many times I laughed out loud in a theatre full of people opening weekend. Especially at the hilariously overacted abusive stepfather throwing things at the main character, and yelling:"I DON'T EVEN LIKE SQUASH!"I was the only one laughing.

One of the most Overrated films in history & its sooooooo boring.