I wanted to like it, I truly did, since I can appreciate how much blood sweat and tears would've gone into the production, but I just didn't enjoy the movie. I found myself looking forward to the ending about half way though. I just don't really see what the point of the movie was, I didn't feel an attachment to characters, I didn't feel like I'd known them all their lives, I felt like I was just watching a very long and boring movie that I was yearning to end. I know that might seem harsh, but that's just what I felt.
I think they were catering to a very specific stereotype with the whole 'one movie; all of our stories' thing, the 'american teen'. I can say for certain I can't relate to a thing that happened in that movie, and Mason and I are the same age group. But that may be because I've never smoked, never had my parents divorce, never had to worry about college, etc. If it was trying to be relatable, it lacked in that department, but that's just me. I'm sure there's someone out there who watched the film and went "Yes! That was my life to a tee!" But that someone wasn't me.
It was more a work of art than a cinema spectacular, I would've expected to see this in the Arthouse section of a video store or something. Seeing the cast grow up was an interesting experience, the little hints of philosophy and the 'why are we here? what's the point of it all' mindset was a nice touch, but some essence was just missing from the film and I just didn't enjoy it. It may have been the lack of plot, but I walked into the cinema knowing that it was going to be about a boys journey through childhood to college, or 'boyhood'. I think it may have been due to my exceedingly high expectations posed on me from checking the IMDb page ratings, as I do every time I go see a movie, so maybe external forces had an impact on my opinion?
So, this movie was visually stunning and very well done, some of the actors were pretty underwhelming, there was a pretty sizeable lack of plot, and what substance was there wasn't relatable to me, and is probably only is to a very small minority of people. I don't think I'll be watching this one again any time soon. I'm still not 100% sure what this movie was trying to show, but it failed to enlighten me.
★★☆☆☆
★★☆☆☆
Thank you for reading.
Watch it here for free: Boyhood Movie for Free (there are a few popups so be careful)
this was an impressive movie, but I just couldn't get into it
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. Pretty, but lacking.
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