Boyhood

Hurray for Richard Linklater! I am one of those cult followers of the Before Sunset series. Ethan Hawke dubbed it as the "lowest grossing trilogy of all time." When I heard about the release of this movie, all I know about it is that is about a boy, and this project is made for a period of 12 years.  We will be able to see how each of the cast has grown within that period. (It makes me want to see the Up Series more) I was supposed to see this movie after our trip to California but we chose to see Sin City 2 on our last night in Texas. Boyhood was screened here last week though it was available in the torrent sites for a while. I would have seen it on the theaters but Chast chose to play billiards than to watch the movie. I ended seeing the downloaded copy that I had for a couple days.

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You know what year it is by what the current event or a trend shown in the movie: the invasion of Iraq, the release of the book Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the Obama-McCain election. There’s some product placement on the film:  Facebook, Canon EOS 7D camera, the apple products iMac, macbook and iphone. It gave me another glimpse of Texas: The setting was on Houston, then San Marcos and finally Austin; They watched a baseball game between the Astros and the Milwaukee Brewers. Texans love their home teams. Mason, the lead character drove in one of the most beautiful road in Texas, though I forgot the name of that road. I saw that once in the television back in Dallas last summer. There’s also this scene where the kids asked a homeowner if they could put up an Obama sign on the yard, and the guy had a confederate flag on the house. The guy even threatened to shoot the kids. There's also Mason's 15th birthday, when he received an old rifle. After that, the kids were thought how to shoot.

I like how I was also able to relate on some of the experiences of the boy, like going home after drinking, then chewing a gum, then his mother asked him if he was out drinking. Not to mention bullying, his first heartache, peer pressure, thinking what to do after high school.

The movie also shows the sense of entitlement of the 2000’s kid and how the mother will do everything for her kids and how siblings change relationships through the years.

There’s also something of the Before Sunrise in there.

a before sunrise scene

a scene from Before Sunrise

source

I like it when the characters have these deep conversations. I think it is a way that the writers convey their thoughts to us who watched the movie, like Jesse and Celine. This maybe is the first time I encountered "The moment seizes us" instead of our usual Carpe Diem. Makes sense. There are some good conversations between the father and the boy regarding his breakup with his girlfriend just before high school graduation. It should not really mean a thing. The last episode of "That Show" the podcast revealed that Sib and Basti regret having girlfriends when they were young. Thinking about it now, it makes sense.