Boyhood: A Slip Down Memory Lane

Given the hype surrounding Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood”, including an astonishing Metascore of 100, it is unsurprising I chose to review it. The film itself was directed over a span of 12 years using the same cast, a feat unachieved by any other film in history. It follows the fictional yet extremely painful growing up of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) in a series of dysfunctional environments. However, being dubbed the film of 2014 by many critics seems to be a poor judgement in my sceptical mind.

The 12 year filming process is of course an amazing achievement, but Boyhood suffers from a delusion I have labelled “Avatar Syndrome”. This is where the production value causes people to overlook the plot’s weak substance and the poor quality of acting and writing. The plot is understandably simple as a means of it being a relatable production portraying the supposedly average growth of an American boy. However, the first third of the film achieves this main goal with added complexities, such as an abusive step dad and somewhat comical scenes. Said complexities are unfortunately non-existent in the remainder of the film where story arcs are repeated and Mason transforms into a corny and stereotypically troubled adolescent. The length of the film does it no favours as given the predestined nature of the story; many segments are bland and purely carried by Patricia Arquette’s tremendous acting as Mason’s mother.

One of the main purposes of this film is clearly to be a nostalgic tale and this is perhaps where my abhorrence stems from. As it’s an American film, many rose-tinted elements simply go over my head, despite mentions of Soulja Boy, Arcade Fire and the 20 question balls. Hence the film is problematic for a British viewer as it is inaccessible to an audience besides an American one. Many characters, including the incredibly cringe-worthy “free spirit” roommate at the end of the film therefore seem too stereotypical to be realistic, similarly with the beer-chugging high school seniors who provide arguably the worst scene in movie history. Much of Coltrane’s dialogue is also unbearable as it involves a cliché existential crisis in which the teenager consistently spews out nonsense about technology being bad, that it is taking over blah blah blah.

The above reasons make it impossible for me to comprehend why the Metascore is so high. Such a score implies that Boyhood is of the same quality as The Godfather and The Conformist, where in fact it is, in some ways, just about on par with my GCSE media project.