On The Maturity of Linklater’s Boyhood

Richard Linklater and cast at Sundance 2014 premiere of Boyhood

While we went jobbing to Park City this past January, by the grace of a good friend, the first and only movie we got to see at Sundance 2014 was a packed, sold-out screening of the highly-anticipated Boyhood by Richard Linklater.

Shot over 39 days sporadically from 2002 to 2013, Linklaters’ radical cinematic experiment, Boyhood, is a tender, observational portrait of a Texas family’s growing pains. Featuring Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke and newcomers Eller Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater, there is nothing we haven’t seen before in the American family genre – amusing sibling fights, dealing with the awkwardness of being the new kid in school, marriages gone sour, reconnecting with an estranged father, etc. – except for the fact that the family grows up and apart before our very eyes.

The obstacles must have been legion to keep the wheels moving over the course of 12 years, but Linklater deftly handles the monumental task on-screen through music, costume, naturalistic cinematography, and the real time aging of the cast. Linklater never forces the issue with his subject matter, choosing minor, offbeat moments of significant revelation and emotional insight over high drama and broad comedy to create a slow burn portrait of the bittersweet nature of youth.

By the end of the film nearly three hours later, the main players may have aged a decade in real life, but we see that time smooths out the rough patches that sometimes seem insurmountable to us as children.

Boyhood will be released through IFC Films and is scheduled to open later in 2014.