Boyhood;
raved by critics as the best movie of the year, greatest movie of the decade, and
an absolute masterpiece…I hated it.
Do I agree it’s an ambitious film? Of course. Do I find it succeeded in plot and character? Not a chance. Richard Linklater's Boyhood is the most rage inducing film I've seen in theaters since Man of Steel, but why is that!? How can a film that’s received such critical praise from audiences and critics alike end up being one of my most hated of 2014? Well since I would be butchered if I simply left my opinion on that, I’ll explain my thoughts towards Boyhood in detail; so without further ado, here are 5 major reasons on why I hated Boyhood.
1. The parents in Mason’s life take priority over his childhood
For around the first hour, Boyhood deals with Mason Jr.’s (Ellar
Coltrane) life as a young boy growing up into a pre-teen; yet throughout the
first hour we never LEARN much about Mason.
The viewers learn little about his school life, friendships, activities,
and personality; instead the film focuses majorly on the adults in Mason’s life
(mostly his father, mother and step-father).
Now don’t get me wrong here, all the adult actors deliver outstanding
performances that individually showcase a wide range of emotion and talent; in
particular Marco Perella’s performance as an alcoholic, which is downright
frightening to watch. However, I must
point out that the film is called Boyhood and as stated on IMDB (along
with the film’s trailers) is about “growing up as seen through the eyes of a
child named Mason”. This gave me
practical expectations that a film about a boy growing up will have
considerable focus on his childhood, along with the many significant aspects that
an adult looks back on when all grown up.
Those important aspects of course includes the adults/guardians in the
child’s life, but also his/her friends, hobbies, activities, interests, vacations,
pets and education to name a few.
Some of my fondest memories from
childhood include collecting Pokémon cards, having sleepovers with friends,
going to amusement parks during home-school week, bowling, going down to the
shore, rock-climbing, having video game tournaments and other nostalgic
events. Boyhood provides glimpses of such activities; Mason watches
Dragonball Z instead of Pokémon, plays Halo 2 with his step-brother, and goes
bowling all with the same goofy image clips shown after you roll (which they
still have to this day). Yet these are
all afterthoughts for the film, briefly shown activities that happen to Mason
yet hardly leave an impact. They’re instead
overshadowed by the events involving Mason’s parents; even the bowling scene
serves little more than to drive Mason’s relationship with his father. Of course parental bonding is a very significant
part of a child’s life, and scenes where Mason’s dad takes him and his sister
to a baseball game (then later teaches them how to play football) are
wonderfully touching examples of such connecting. The problem is that every significant part of Mason’s childhood consists of either
parental bonding or parental trauma.
We never dive into Mason’s
interests, never meet any significant friends and hardly hear the boy speak at
all! The film treats childhood friends
and hobbies as insignificant in favor of focusing on the adults because the
film fails to leave an adult mindset. Linklater
observes these cartoon shows, video games, and youthful friends and sees them
as nothing more than fleeting events, forgetting that he too was once a kid
whose “fleeting events” have forever remained sentimental in his mind and heart
(Dazed and Confused is a prime
example of that). There’s a film you may
have heard called The Tree of Life, where
its main character reflects upon his childhood years. He of course remembers his loving mother and
his complex relationship with his father, but it doesn't stop there. He also recalls his siblings, the games they
played, the mischief and trouble he got into, the activities he enjoyed, the
friends he had (and lost), and the changes his personality when through. The film balances between the events that
involved his parents and the events that didn't; fleshing out his childhood
with thoughtfulness and consideration, as one would remember their own childhood. Boyhood
forgets this, making Mason’s childhood all about his parents and little about
himself; making him a hollow, unrelatable character used simply to progress the
ill-balanced plot.
2. Mason’s life is too gloomy and upsetting for Boyhood’s subject matter
Mason’s parents are divorced,
doesn't see his father for years, and changes schools frequently; his mother
remarries an abusive alcoholic, takes him away from his step-brother and sister
(who are never shown in the film again) and then remarries another jerk. Mason is clearly shown to suffer trauma as a
result of these issues; such as hardly talking as a child, always looking grim
and becoming quite cynical as a teenager.
Sadly many children have, are, or will go through similar (or worse)
trauma during their lives, and there is a time and a place for such stories to
be told…but this is not one of them. Boyhood should be showing the raw
emotions of being a kid in a more welcoming fashion; the pure blissful joy of
receiving presents on your birthday, the adrenaline-fueled excitement of waking
up early on Saturday morning to watch your favorite cartoons, the absolute
terror of getting caught for hitting your sibling(s), and the fear of being
reprimanded by your parents as a result.
Instead what the viewer’s get from
Mason’s childhood are the feelings of realistic fear of adults, confusion over
reasoning, loneliness and isolation, depression over forced events, and the
feeling of helplessness at stopping any of them. Throughout the majority Mason’s childhood he seems
upset, gloomy or depressed, which from his melancholy childhood comes the unfortunate
theme that “being a kid sucks”. Such a
theme is even backed by how progressively happier Mason gets and how much
better his life becomes as he ages. This
was an unfortunate approach to go, since being a child can (and should if
possible) be one of the greatest experiences to have. I’m not say Mason’s life should be carefree
and perfect, but maybe Linklater could have lightened up on the amount of
trauma presented. Perhaps instead of both
divorce and an abusive alcoholic step-father, the film could have scrapped the
alcoholism and simply had divorce be the primary issue for Mason’s childhood.
3. Once a teenager, Mason becomes one of the most boring characters I've ever seen on screen!
My god! Not since Birdemic:
Shock and Terror have I seen such a bland, expressionless, stiff-as-a-board
performance. Teenage Ellar Coltrane
makes Hayden Christensen’s performance in Attack
of the Clones look Oscar worthy. He
makes this scene from Willy Wonka & the
Chocolate Factory seem sincere and heartfelt. The more he talked the more I considered running
out of the theater screaming; a plank of wood with googly eyes and glued-on
eyebrows could convey clearer emotions. I’m
running out of stupid comparisons to express just how DULL AND EMOTIONLESS HE
BECOMES!!!...and the worst part is THIS is when the film decides to give him
more screen time, and it just…keeps…going!
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Mason
would talk and talk about god knows what; I could never quite tell during these
scenes if he was angry, or happy or just being cynical since he continuously
keeps the same semi-stoic expression throughout the entire film! There’s a scene near the very end where
Mason’s mother breaks down in tears over how pointless she feels her life’s
been and that soon she’ll end up dying alone.
Does Mason run over to his caring mother (who’s dedicated her whole life
towards taking loving care of him and his sister) and hug her, expressing his
gratitude for how great a mom she’s been to him? NO, instead he just stands there completely inexpressive
at her plight (this scene pretty much sums up his emotional response). What kind of sick f@$%
just stands around while there caring mother experiences a mental
breakdown!? I’ll tell you who, NO ONE;
because anyone with two ounces of compassion would go over and hug their poor
old mother, not stand there like an idiot and ask “duhhh, what’s wrong
mom?” The film would have been better
off being called Girlhood and
starring Mason’s sister Sam (Lorelei Linklater, aka the director’s daughter),
since she was a far more interesting and emotional character than her robot of
a brother.
4. Everything is explained to the viewers rather than shown
Filmmaking 101 people: SHOW, DON’T
TELL!!! Whenever something significant happens
in Mason’s life the film, rather than simply show the event, sees it better to
explain what happened thru exposition.
We never SEE Mason get his first girlfriend, hell we never get to even see
her! Instead we the viewers are told via
dialogue with his father that he’s finally dating someone…BECAUSE THAT’S NOT AN
IMPORTANT ENOUGH EVENT IN A BOY’S LIFE TO BE SHOWN!!! Both Mason’s dad and I reacted the same way
to such a reveal: “You do? When did that happen!?” We never see Mason’s second step-dad leave,
in fact it’s unclear when and why he divorced Mason’s mother (or if she divorced
him for that matter). His growing
interest in photography is sprung right out of nowhere; never do we see how he
gets interested in it, it’s just something he suddenly really enjoys. Interests and hobbies are very important in a
growing teen’s life; they help guide and define who he or she will become, which
gives the viewers a better comprehension of the adolescent’s personality. How Mason becomes first interested in
photography should be an important character defining scene, not an
afterthought overshadowed by the all too
vital scenes of Mason getting his first Bible and shotgun (items that will
clearly not be significant in his future).
Boyhood isn't an imageless text
book, it’s a sequence of moving pictures capable of vivid expression without
sound, take advantage of that!
The worst offender however is how Boyhood handles Mason’s breakup with his
steady girlfriend and possibly first
lover (I wasn't sure however, since it’s never made clear if she was his first;
because you know, LOSING YOUR VIRGINITY ISN'T THAT IMPORT..oh forget it). The viewers never see how it happens, instead
the reasons behind their break up is told entirely
through straight forward exposition…too each other (you know, the one’s that
should already know why)! The
conversation essentially ends up sounding like this:
Mason: As you
already know, I can’t believe you did that thing that your friend told me
about.”
Girlfriend: Well
as you know, I only did that thing because we know that this thing will not
work out.
Mason: Still, as you know, that other thing that
happened was super embarrassing and IT’S A SHAME NONE OF THE VIEWERS COULD HAVE
SEEN IT HAPPEN because it would have been far more interesting than hearing us
drone on like this…as you already know.
The majority of significant events in
Mason’s boyhood are told rather than shown, making him more of a stranger that
I’m being told about from a gossipy friend rather than a growingly affectionate
character (though to be fair, showing the events would have only fixed the film
to a certain degree thanks to issue #3).
5. Friends, friends? Has anyone seen any friends!?
You know the song Friends Forever
by Vitamin C? That really cheesy song that’s
played at the end of high school graduations about how you’ll always be friends
forever with those fellow students you’ll most likely lose contact with in a
year or so? Well, there’s actually some
truth to that song; not that you’ll always be friends with your high school
buddies (you’ll most likely lose about 90% of them), but that teens and adolescents
actually think similar to that. Friends
are one of the most important aspects of a kid’s life; the ones you believe
will always have your back (and sometimes do), will go out and party with, get
into trouble with, and will always be your friends no matter how far reality
forces you away. Not once during the
film is Mason shown having a consistent friend (even after he stops moving); he
has friends all right, but each one
only gets a few minutes of screen time (if lucky) before disappearing entirely
from the film.
Hey, but maybe the film’s looking
at the big picture; maybe it knows that friends don’t stick around, that
eventually they become nothing more than brief memories right? Wrong!
There are people you stay friends with for the rest of your lives; it
may only be 3, 2, heck even 1 friend and it may be someone you never expected
you would remain close with, but it does happen. Where’s the friendship in Boyhood?
Who are the people (relatives not included) that Mason remains close
to? It remains to be seen, because the
film never takes the time to flesh out Mason’s friends, instead giving brief
glimpses of many different youths who aren't on screen long enough to even remember
their names. Even Mason’s romantic
interests/girlfriends (I believe there were about 3 or 4) fail to leave even the
slightest impressionable impact. Instead
it’s the PARENTS that are given such memorable treatment because the film ultimately
isn't about the boy growing up, it’s about the parents raising the boy.
We experience Mason’s life not
through his eyes, but through his parents; similar to them, we hear about his
experiences rather than see them occur.
We see his friends and hobbies not as a boy would, but as his parents would
observe. The film in actuality should
have been called Parenthood, because
that’s closer to what the story wants to be about…yet it isn't called Parenthood, it’s called Boyhood because the film is conflicted
on which story it’s telling; unevenly switching back and forth between the
parents and the boy, unsure of which one to focus on. Such conflict creates the film’s own downfall
before it even begins; Mason’s story ends up becoming a butchered series of
glimpses on his personality and character.
I view Mason from a distance, as if his parents are trying to describe his
life, but aren't too sure themselves. The
description is shallow, and what I end up viewing is a coming of age character that’s
difficult to sympathize and understand, played by a bland expressionless teenager
with a wooden personality.
