Rating summary
Movie | | 5.0 |
Video | | 3.5 |
Audio | | 4.0 |
Extras | | 2.0 |
Overall | | 3.5 |
Boyhood Blu-ray Movie Review
Life.
Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 5, 2015
In a time when cinema novelty has been replaced by the proverbial cookie-cutter approach to filmmaking, when bigger and better special effects
and
sound mixes appear to be all that's differentiating one movie from the next, when film as a medium for personal reflection and a look at the greater
human condition has given way to films made only to max studio revenue, when the cinematic art form seems all but lost, along comes a movie
like
Boyhood. It's richly creative and always intoxicating, determined to do something with the medium and for the
audience
that
extends beyond raw commercialization, that hopes to renew one's faith in the movies and capture the essence of what art is all about. Director
Richard Linklater's (Before Midnight) 12-year project that follows one boy's growth into
young adulthood
has indeed revitalized a medium that's becoming increasingly transparent and devoid of purpose beyond selling tickets, moving Blu-ray discs, and
streaming digitized entertainment. It's a beautifully simple concept and a movie that most will find works better after the fact, leaving viewers with
a sense of satisfaction not for having seen it but rather for having been enriched by it, reflecting not on its technical specifications but instead its
amazing
ability to replicate life with such flowing, effortless precision that ultimately turns its lens upon its audience, asking viewers to look back on their
own lives and see in the movie their own portrait, one that's certainly not the same but one that shares with it a tangible, simple similarity across
the
unpredictable arc of life.
Dreaming of tomorrow.
There's not a real, single, identifiable plot to
Boyhood beyond "the journey of life." The film depicts some specifics, however, across the
grade school, middle school, and high school years of a person named Mason (Ellar Coltrane). He's younger brother to Samantha (Lorelei Linklater,
daughter
of
Director Richard Linklater) and the son of a broken family. His father (Ethan Hawke) cruises around in a vintage GTO and takes his son camping
and
to Houston Astros baseball games. His mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette) continues her education, marries one of her professors (Marco Perella),
and
must
deal with the consequences of an alcoholic and increasingly abusive man in her children's lives. As Mason grows older, he takes an interest in girls
and moves on from playing his Nintendo Wii to starting a burgeoning career as a photographer, all the while living through a revolving door of
stepfathers and finding inspiration from the few people outside of his family who seem to care about his future, including his photography teacher
and
his boss at a restaurant where he busses tables.
The film is, in fact, quite adept at depicting "life." Even as many audiences may not be able to relate to all of it, chances are everyone will connect
with some element within it, but the film's beauty doesn't come from some amazingly relatable journey but rather through its surprisingly full and
rich depiction of a single life,
one person's experiences through the journey most all of its viewers will have already experienced. It doesn't aim to capture the details of
childhood so
much as it aims to recreate the spirit of childhood. The 12-year project yields a film that runs under three hours; needless to say the picture's aim
isn't to depict every ebb and flow but find a combination of high and low points intermixed with casual one-off sort of moments that might not be
life changing but that do mold it -- as every moment does in some large or small way -- and build upon the body of experiences that define
Mason's maturation beyond numbers on a calendar. That said, the movie does follow a fairly linear path, often failing to take risks with its
character, but one can argue that such a journey is actually a strength in the greater context rather than a weakness. It shows that Mason is
nobody special, at least not in the typical dramatic arc sort of narrative. Instead, he is everyone, exploring life through the prism of the
environment in which he is placed and through the shared experiences, good, bad, and indifferent, of those who share that space with him. That's
the film's real brilliance. It doesn't aim for drama, it aims for life, and while drama does frequently flow from life, the film's adherence to building
through reality -- scripted reality, but believable reality -- rather than manufactured contrivances allows it to more naturally, fully, richly, and
accurately depict its core subject of growth in the modern world.
The 12-year shoot, then doesn't so much simplify the story but rather grounds it, makes it more tangible, more believable, even if there are
moments here and there when it's not particularly clear exactly at what age Mason appears beyond a range the audience can dwindle down based
on context clues and where the movie has taken him. Again, though, a proper timestamp would seem to lessen the impact of authenticity; the film
rightly cares more for the journey rather than particular points on the road, even though it's often those random points where the film makes its
biggest impacts.
After watching the film -- and Blu-ray makes this exercise ridiculously easy, fun, eye-opening, and mind-boggling -- skip to a random point in the
movie, turn the sound down, even, and just watch Mason doing whatever he's doing, just for a moment. Maybe he's lying on the grass,
daydreaming about what awaits him. Perhaps he's clicking through something on an old iMac at his school. Perhaps he's learning about focus and
diligence in the school's dark room. Maybe he's dipping chips in tasty queso with a beautiful girl at an Austin diner in the middle of the night. With
the greater context in mind, the simple act of soaking in random bits and pieces will further one's appreciation of just how well the movie builds its
character through every individual moment and how each moment further increases not so much the narrative power but rather the picture's
unflinching dedication to constructing life through moving snapshots. This exercise is like finding an old photograph in the bottom of a drawer,
flooding the viewer with memories not simply or even necessarily of the moment but also everything that came before and everything that has
come after. Each and every
instance adds up to one thing, the full individual, where every experience along the way means something greater than the moment. The echoes
of the larger whole, even the most mundane of them, reinforces better than even the entire thing (given an initial viewing first) just how smart and
precise a film this is, one that's almost effortlessly capable of capturing life even if it's a life filled with experiences that greatly differ from those
that shape any given member of the audience.
On the more raw technical side of the ledger,
Boyhood proves a success, though certainly its finest is saved for the sheer pleasure in
absorbing its special nature more so than appreciating the little technical tidbits that help the movie along. Linklater shot the entire picture on film
over the course of the 12-year production, allowing for a necessary consistency in visual tone that keeps the audience in the movie and focused on
its themes and characters rather than on changing styles, particularly some transformation to digital along the way. The performances are largely
excellent, believably natural and remarkably consistent given the lengthy production during which the cast certainly worked on other projects, lived
life, and aged. Ellar Coltrane proves more than capable as focal point Mason; his performance can be a touch flat near the end, but considering the
portrayal of a young
man just finding his way, a little reservation, a touch of hesitation, a feeling of self-exploration is not at all a hindrance to the part. What's more,
he favors in-movie father Ethan Hawke so precisely by the end that it's a wonder he's the same actor as the one who played Mason 12 years
earlier, or that he wasn't cast with his future appearance in mind. Whether it's a dab of makeup, the facial hair, the posture, the build, whatever it
may be, the resemblance is uncanny and only further
solidifies the film's tangible sense of realism. Hawke, too, is excellent. His path is a bit more linear and cleaner, for lack of a better word, than that
required of Patricia Arquette, whose life takes significantly more hits and goes through many more changes along the way. Yet Arquette remains
incredibly natural even as
the character undergoes what is probably the most obvious transformation(s) beyond Mason in the entire movie. Perhaps the single best
performance,
however, comes from Marco Perella who plays Olivia's alcoholic husband.
Boyhood Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality
Boyhood grows up on Blu-ray with a solid, but sometimes unspectacular 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer. The film-sourced image retains a
fairly consistent, though occasionally sharp, grain structure. Detail is handsome and steady but lacks the sort of lifelike clarity and pinpoint attention to
detail seen on the very best film and digital presentations. It can go a touch soft in spots, too, but generally the image reveals suitably complex facial
features, clothing lines, building façades, and other close-up elements. Green grass on a golf course and rougher outdoor terrain are likewise nicely
defined and crisp more often than they are soft and smeary. Colors are even and pleasant, never richly robust but finding a good, positive accuracy
across a myriad of lighting conditions, from low-light interiors to sunlit-drenched exteriors. Skin tones tend to ebb and flow with the light but tend to
push warmer than expected. Black levels are imperfect but not to the point of distraction. Light crush and a minor push to purple are evident -- the
Harry Potter book release is a good example -- and they can frequently become littered with noise in the darkest scenes. Additionally, the image
suffers from some distracting pops and speckles which aren't frequent but do pop up on occasion, nowhere more noticeable than the darkroom
sequence in chapter 11. Overall, however, this is an attractive film transfer that serves the movie well.
Boyhood Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality
Boyhood features a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is generally straightforward, dominated by dialogue throughout.
The spoken word flows cleanly and accurately from the center, with no discernible flaws in clarity or intelligibility. Music is never fully immersive,
favoring instead a front-end dominant presence. Still, accuracy is fine, clarity suffices, and spacing along the front feels full. The track produces some
light ambient effects in places, including inside Mason's school, at a baseball game, or inside a bowling alley, all of which play around in the back
channels but
never to the point of full, effortless, realistic immersion. Nevertheless, this is a healthy, consistent track that handles a somewhat underscored
presentation very well.
Boyhood Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras
Boyhood contains a making-of and a lengthy Q&A. A DVD copy and a UV/iTunes digital copy voucher are included in the Blu-ray case.
- The 12 Year Project (1080p, 19:11): A look at the story origins, casting, the parallel stories and themes that run through the film, the
shooting schedule, shooting on film, actor transformations throughout the shoot, the film's dramatic structure, and more. This supplement is itself
almost a microcosm of the film seeing the cast -- and crew -- mature through the process.
- Q&A with Richard Linklater and the Cast (1080p, 52:38): Richard Linklater, Lorelei Linklater, Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, and Ehtan
Hawke speak at length about the film's details, including its tone and feel, music, project origins and committing to it, characters and performances,
and much more. From the Cinefamily Screening at the Silent Movie Theater, Los Angeles, California, June 15, 2014.
Boyhood Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation
Boyhood is a remarkable and special film that breaks cinema convention not only thanks to its unorthodox shooting schedule but because of its
incredibly accurate depiction of life. It uses the same actors to shape about a 12-year stretch in the life of a young boy who grows into maturity
through a collection of what amounts to snapshots of his life, from elementary school to the beginning of his college career and life as an adult. It's
incredibly consistent in tone and performance, an amazing accomplishment considering the on-and-off approach to the shoot. The film proves that
there's still room for the cinema medium to grow beyond the tired constraints to which the industry far too often, and far too closely, adheres. If all is
right in the world, Boyhood should walk away from the 87th Academy Awards as the night's big winner. Paramount's Blu-ray release of
Boyhood features good video and audio. Supplements are unfortunately limited but should see more if the rumored Criterion Collection release comes to fruition. As it stands, this Paramount
release earns my
highest recommendation largely on the film's merits alone.