Dear Cinephiles and soul surfers,
From the waters of Florida, Charleston, Venice Beach, and all across the world the summer at the cinema is usually bone dry. However, there has been a dramatic change to the summer filmgoing experience. I am astounded by the current best film of the year. A film that seems like viewing ten films in one.
As a lover of the art of cinema one has to admire the audacity of Richard Linklater's latest portrait of life. Linklater is originally from Texas and a lot of his personal life and soul is in this one. Known for "Slacker" "Dazed and Confused" and the "Before Trilogy". Here it seems like the film he always wanted to make all his life.
The film "Boyhood" took ten years to film and the boy Mason grows from a young kid to a college freshman before your eyes. The actual use of chronological time took the film to a completely different level. As a viewer you get to witness Mason go through many phases of life. From wanting bumper bowling, going to a baseball game with his actual Dad, becoming a photographer, camping with his father, the first girl he truly falls in love with, graduating high school and becoming a college freshman.
My favorite scenes in the movie are when he is with his father listening to the band warm up in the club and he is telling him the secrets of life and how to cope with the loss of his girlfriend. Linklater knows a certain type of dialogue better than anyone out their. I kept thinking how organic this felt watching this chemistrty. I imagined how long a rapport must of been built up between the actors after such a long time working together. They had to become like family.
The scene of Mason leaving the nest and his mother pleading to take the photo of the first one he took with his camera is a show stopper. She becomes completely naked as an artist and bears such deep feelings that I rarely feel in cinema. This is an example of what Werner Herzog would call "the ecstatic truth."
The ending is one the best I have ever seen when the girl tells Mason about the present moment that she believes "The Moment ceases us" the film instantly becomes epic.
What range, scope, and determination. Cheers to Summer and the Hits from Japan, France, Russia, and Germany.
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