An interesting Docudrama/Movie about the day-to- day life and growth of "typical" middle American family over about a fifteen year period . . . from early marriage, numerous divorces and childbearing until the children leave home for college. There were no significant events, surprises or crisis added to the film to provide excitement to the narrative. Just a plain, somewhat depressed, family going through the motions of living. It was of no importance at all that the movie was shot over a fifteen year period with the same performers. Movies with people aging have been made since time in memorial.
The only positive aspect of the film, for a person such as myself who lived through a similar experience many generations ago, was to see how time and the advent of new technology, drugs, birth control, etc. had changed the interrelationships between people in a young growing family.
Because the subject matter was so vast, the movie did dig deeply into the motivations and psychological aspects of the family members. For example, the mother of the family, kept marrying and divorcing abusive men, although she seemed reasonably intelligent. This could have been a story unto itself.
On the negative side, the hype about the movie by "the critics", such as the statement in Rotten Tomatoes:
"Epic in technical scale but breathlessly intimate in narrative scope. Boyhood is a sprawling investigation of the human condition.",
is utter nonsense. So was some of the other terrible exaggerations included in the Rotten Tomatoes writeup: For example,
Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story (are they kidding) of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. (you just can't believe the reviewers).
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