There are films that hook you with action, there are films that catch on with dialogue, there are films that are difficult to talk about without spoilers. This was the new film by Richard Linklater “Boyhood” The film received the award for best art house, critics called it a masterpiece many times.
The film was made for 12 years, with the same actors and the film we show the child Mason and his life from 5 to 18 years. We see how his character, attitude to the world, philosophy, changes. It seems like an ordinary story, there is no plot as such. But the film catches on with its details. Every detail, references and different details are remembered. All the teachers, friends of the main character, are also very memorable. It's a brilliant job. The film is based on these little things. The dialogue is gorgeous, full of meaning. They are completely different, about movies, about books, about life. Also different conflicts, attitude, friendship. Oh, man, that's awesome! Words can't describe that. Mason's life is very interesting to watch, you live with him. Many people will find something in common with him. There were moments and tense. I haven’t felt so much emotion in a long time. In general, about this film, it is difficult to write something so as not to spoil. The film is a must-see. It's a masterpiece.
The technical side of this film is great. Great editing, great soundtrack. The camera work is great, too. There are no downsides here either.
Acting is great. Everyone played well. Allar Coltrane just got used to his role. You feel for him, you feel for him. Other actors are good too.
Adolescence is a real masterpiece, which is likely to receive even an Oscar. Great storytelling, great acting, soundtrack, technical side. This movie will appeal to almost everyone. The film will be remembered forever.
It's been a long time since I've felt so much after watching a movie."Boyhood" is Richard Linklater's new film. After his magnificent trilogy Before. . . . the director presents us a work he has been working on for 12 years. I immediately say that “Boyhood” is the main creation of the director, I have never seen anything like this. This film penetrated into the very soul, made you sincerely rejoice, worry and simply live a whole life together with the heroes of the film. This film is dedicated to youth, the main and warmest memories of each person.
We are watching a little boy named Mason. Nothing special about him, he is the most ordinary child who just lives. His life reminds me of my own, every viewer will find something different in this boy. Mason is attached to his mother, whom he loves very much, and he also has an older sister. His mother is not happy, she has a terrible personal life, after divorcing her husband, Mason’s mother repeatedly tried to build relationships with other men, but each of the novels, although it began happily, but as it happens, ended quite the opposite. A big place in the life of the boy is occupied by his own father. He also had not the easiest life, they understand each other from the floor of words, each meeting is always filled with joy and mutual understanding. Our hero Mason gradually grows, we grow with him, passing the path of a little boy, in two and a half hours our hero turns out to be a teenager and already an independent person. This is a lifelong journey, every person who saw the film will be in his youth, in his world of happiness, where even a tiny memory gives rise to a smile.
"Adolescence" is a completely unique film, in three hours, Linklater managed to show all the youth of our hero, all the ups and downs, moments of joy and sorrow, first love and disappointment, the relationship between children and parents, the creative path and just a piece of life that we call youth. If we used to say that the trilogy “Before...” is vital, then I don’t even know what to call “Adolescence.” I have never seen a picture closer to the viewer. Everyone will find themselves in this film, "Adolescence" is a tribute to the most beautiful period of man, his growing up.
I already love this movie and would call it a masterpiece, Richard Linklater did everything we could to call it a genius. Directing, soundtrack and camera work - there are no complaints. Almost three hours pass in one breath, and how can it be otherwise, when we see a person growing up, only this is fascinating. Invaluable work in the creation of the picture did the Director. Let me remind you that Linklater took almost 12 years to implement the project. He made the film partly by following the actors in real life, and by doing so he watched them change both externally and internally. That is why the characters of the film turned out so close and instantly styles of soul mates.
I can’t help but mention two great actors. Patricia Arquette, who played the role of Mason’s mother, played incredibly sensual and soulful, she embodied the image of a real mother and I felt her love in every shot, enjoy her game, because it is not so often you see her on the screen. Already well known to all of us Ethan Hawk, as always chic, this is the same Jesse from the trilogy “Before...”, the same cheerful, kind and playful, I don’t know why, but with each new role I become more and more a devoted fan of the work of this actor.
"Adolescence" - a masterpiece, so simple and short, the picture will definitely attract the attention of viewers and critics and I think that it may well qualify for "Oscar". I advise everyone, Richard Linklater’s best film and one of the best this year.
9 out of 10
Life is extremely difficult to catch by the tail. Here it is, and now it has passed... And that elusive beauty is a creative meaning for Linklater, it's happiness in seconds, small, sharp - his artistic style. Bypassing cumbersome philosophical theories and deliberately dramatic plot, the director (as if without much difficulty) carves a spark of life in the frame. For him, sincerity is the main character, dialogue replaces events, and the monotonous “day-by-day” is carefully split into moments of truth. "Adolescence" in this regard, perhaps, the most striking example, because it has no distracting romantic line, no whole plot, no instructive conclusion for the younger generation.
"What's the point at all?" asks Mason in his transitional seventeen, thinking in big categories, staring desperately into the world through the camera's lens. "How do I know!" - dismisses fifty-year-old Linklater, filming his characters on camera. This time he observes not ordinary actors, but living people, noting their growth and spiritual development on film for twelve years. Unique in its realism project - in this century, when everything can be drawn on the computer.
Formally, this picture is about growing up, and it is not surprising that Linklater was looking for a source of inspiration in the first twenty years. Only children perceive life in the full range of emotions, eventually overgrown with the shell of patience, building walls of moral norms and social restrictions around themselves. On the screen there is everything that is characteristic of teenage melodramas: problems in the family, quarrels with parents and peers, youthful maximalism, first love, doubts about their own future. But if it usually ends with some universal recipe for further well-being, there are only promising views and a road to the horizon. The director does not claim to have tasted the fruit of knowledge from the tree of life; all the adults on screen are just as restless souls trying to find their way. The only difference is that you can not turn away from some ways, and the joy of the discoverer is long behind. But in his youth - every pebble under his feet hurts into the sole, and the change of landscape causes genuine admiration. In youth, every minute counts, and only later time begins to flow through your fingers.
“Boyhood” is also unique in that it does not have a leading storyline, there is no pronounced theme. Linklater does not focus on family relationships, on the first romantic experiences, or on the problem of self-determination. As in reality, everything happens at once, and the main thing that interests the director is the flow of life, its continuous pace, its subtle melody. Hairstyles, clothes, toys, houses; what we watch, what we read, what we talk about at dinner; who we vote for, where we move, how much we pay — all this shapes us in a snowball. The real talent is to see harmony in all this cacophony without fixating on anything concrete. Linklater is one of the few who succeed in this trick, and so three hours of such a mundane "Boyhood" fly by unnoticed. In the end, even want more, because the heroes have a long road ahead, and you can not just let them go on a solo voyage.
Boyhood is a project by Richard Linklater that has been in production for 12 years. It should be noted that earlier this was mainly done by documentary filmmakers, until the director from Houston showed himself in this direction, becoming, if not a discoverer, then one of them for sure. The fact is that the image of the process of growing up characters is usually achieved by selecting completely different actors for a certain age, while not always similar in appearance. And in our case from year to year (from 2002 to our time), Linklater closely followed the characters of Allar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke and others.
Due to the chosen method of shooting and narration development, it seems that you read a real novel - from page to page, from chapter to chapter - and with each minute you are more and more drawn into what is happening. We are gradually introduced to the existing situation: a young mother (Arckett) is forced to raise small children on her own (Mason just went to school, and Samantha is only a couple of years older), and accordingly, the puzzle of her fate does not particularly add up. Babies require care, funds are barely enough to feed themselves, and you can not think about your personal life at all. As for the father of the children (Hawke), he also has nothing to boast about with his constant interruptions in earnings, but he has a special plus - love for his children, which is already a rarity.
The picture stands out with a life position, so it is able to focus all attention on itself, being executed in an unobtrusive style. Separately, it should be noted the fact that the plot itself is built without any vulgarities and moralizing, without telling the viewer when to show certain emotions. Everything is simple and obvious: say, look, this is what you can see from the windows of the house, or perhaps this is your personal story. Here, look, the mother once again marries a dubious person, initially seemed a reliable support. Our attention is focused on the view of the track, where there are solid lines, cutting the throat of fate with a blade, leaving scars, and showing the next move from city to city, from state to state, where there is still hope for an improved situation.
12 years... 12 long years. During this period, the child manages to finish school and the first year of higher education. For 12 years, each person can change a dozen jobs, start a family, children, plant a tree, during which time the same person can change consciousness, way of thinking; during this time, a huge number of events can occur that can go down in world history. And it was during these 12 years that Richard Linklater shot, perhaps, his main masterpiece. Indeed, the risk was huge: what if something happened to the actors? and someone else had already managed/successfully implemented the idea that Richard wanted to embody while he was editing and waiting for Ellar to grow up? and he began to have creative stagnation in each other? and the muse would leave him in a friend? and if no one understood the idea, and then 12 years of the cat under the tail?
Any sane person would ask quite logical questions: why did you need to stretch the process of shooting for a long ten-plus years, when you could shoot all this in 2 months? Why wait for Ellar and Lorelei to grow up, because you could arrange a casting and pick up similar actors? In general, if you dig into Linklater’s filmography and carefully study it, the answer to the question comes immediately. Richard is a film artist, and, as befits a real artist, he loves to experiment with his work, loves to discover something new, loves to do what others can not do.
"Adolescence" first of all amazes by how in such a practically small and not terribly expensive film fit, I will not be afraid of this phrase, a whole life. It's like putting a real elephant in a little box. For more than two hours, Richard will show us the development of not only characters, but also the world around us. Here, for example, at the very beginning, Ethan Hawke tells children that the war in Iraq has nothing to do with the tragedy of September 11, and that it is better in the presidential election to vote for anyone but Bush; and after a few film years, they go to other people's homes and put up posters with Obama. Or, say, technical achievements: at the beginning, Mason plays the Game boy, and after a few scenes, he plays with his brother, the son of the stepfather of the main character, on Xbox, then the Wii U goes, and at the end, the iPhone. It seems like nothing, but still these little things have their charm.
As for the characters of the picture, they surprisingly, with each film year, reach their peak development. Like Mason himself. In the beginning, we see his usual 6-year-old child, who is just beginning to learn about the world around him: he will stick stones in a sharpener to sharpen them, then for the first time he will start riding a bicycle, then for the first time he will see a half-naked model in underwear in a randomly found magazine. Slowly, step by step, year by year, we see how a pretty youngster is formed, who by the age of 16 reflects on the prospects of college and the prospects of living far away from his parents, and by the age of 18 he knows the answers to perhaps the most tricky and most important questions for any teenager: who do you want to be and what do you want to do? In many ways, Mason was influenced by his father, who occasionally issued wise phrases: "Do you want bumpers?" Life doesn’t give us bumpers, " You have to find a way to separate yourself from the pack, to succeed at something, and when you are the leader of the pack, you will be sniffed. However, despite some seriousness, the film has many funny and nostalgic moments for many viewers. For example, in the scene of the first meeting with adults, or rather even older guys who proudly boast about the number of sexual partners, Mason is asked a: “Have you had anyone?”, to which he timidly and shyly replies: “Yeah... She doesn't live here. She's from Houston.” We don’t know for sure whether it was or not, but subconsciously we know that he lied so as not to be a big-time adult. “I deliberately did not show his first kiss, the loss of his virginity. It's a different movie. The transition between segments was important here, and it took me a long time to do that, says the director.
But it's not just Mason who's united. In these two hours, we will see how the people around him change. Mom, sister, you just have to see it. Even the most seemingly minor characters will change. For example, the first stepfather, who at first seems a kind man, and at the end becomes a real despot-alcoholic. The only one who will remain unchanged is Mason's father, who will get a thick mustache, but will remain the same wise cheerful.
However, the realization of all the monumentality and grandeur of this picture occurs in the pre-pre-pre-pre-the last scene, when Mason goes to university, and on the radio plays the same song indie group Family of the year called “Hero”. Under this wonderful melody in my head unwittingly pops up the idea that literally for these two hours we, the audience, got the opportunity to see the formation of the whole personality and see what changes the world has suffered. And most importantly, it was all in real time. Before us were real people who for 12 years grew up with their heroes, and with him grew and developed our world. And it's really incredible! And how does the movie end? Nothing at all. Life goes on even when the final credits are over.
Linklater's "talking" films for academic criticism have so far been like children's drawings. It seems to be praised, even admired, and even a candy-nominated Oscar is given. But as to the case, it begins: “Well, this is not quite a real movie...”
As a result, the best film work about modern love - the trilogy "Before..." flew past all the status "Globes" and "Oscars" along with the box office.
With "Adolescence," it looks like the situation could happen again. No film has been captured this year as much as this 12-year experimental work. But then and then it starts again, "That's really nice, but what kind of movie is that?" And then about the absence of passions, real conflict, an interesting plot, outstanding acting of actors and the flight of creative thought of the screenwriter and director. Well, this is really not the everyday life of superheroes, not a cruel drama, not a thriller, not a moral dilemma, not Dostoevsky and not Chekhov. Linklater only sees beauty and meaning in our boring life, and it is most interesting to him.
Actually, about the movie. The most important impression is the almost physical sensation of the transience of life. Not from the boredom of what is happening on the screen, but from the mesmerizing screen flow of time. At the same time, it does not lead to depression, rather, on the contrary, it reconciles and inspires. As ABBA said, “Slipping through the fingers all the time.” There's only a moment. This sentence is written now and has already been read by you. As the character of the film puts it, “We don’t catch the moment, but the moment catches us.” And it is this trend that has picked you up that helps you see the unexpectedly important in the seemingly absolutely prosaic events of which, in fact, the film consists.
For example, little Mason moves with his sister and mother to a new place and from the window of the car sees his best friend on a bicycle, who soon hides behind the trees. They will probably never see each other again. Remember how you had it? When you saw someone dear in your life and did not realize that it was the last time
Or suddenly there are some unexpected associations with what you see. Like Nicole, who wrote a cheering note to bald Mason at school, and Nicole, who was next to Mason in college. Is it the same girl, or maybe our "angels" have the same name?
However, the film is so multifaceted that it requires repeated viewing and dozens of pages to present the thoughts from what you saw. A single mother-Arckett, trying to raise children, get an education and hoping to find a reliable person for herself and her children. She makes mistakes, but she achieves a lot, she has something to respect herself for and at the same time: “I thought there would be more...” Who among us has not thought or thought?
Or Papa Hawk, in my opinion, one of the most outstanding film fathers, combining carelessness and responsibility, sensitivity and inattention, confidence and indecision. And his wonderful semi-monologues like "Let's Talk!" or a funny attempt to sexually educate children? His progress from a romantic with a cool wheelbarrow, looking for adventures in Alaska at the beginning to a responsible father - an insurance agent with a minivan in the end suggests various thoughts, of which I singled out one simple one for myself: life will eventually improve if you love her and remain sober.
Being a friend and associate of the director, Hawke invested a lot in the image of himself: in the film he sings his songs (although, frankly, his partner in the trilogy Julie Delpie in singing it is much superior), gives Mason “Black Album” The Beatles, who in life composed for his daughter Maya and even quotes a piece from his book “Ash Wednesday” (" For an accident requires two unimportant drivers” – in his time, by the way, this excerpt with advice to the novice driver helped in the first months of driving) in one of the episode. And what a wonderful new wife and her enchanting parents with a bible and a gun!
As for the main characters, Mason and Samantha, played by Allar Coltrane and Linklater's daughter Lorelai, then they are certainly associated with the main luck of the film. Critics said a lot of good things about Ellar, but the specific Lorelai, which reminded some viewers of her appearance as much as a “headed zombie”, I liked no less. Her "horseshit"-picking with her brother and mother was quite convincing and natural, as was her "Good Luck!" towards the end.
In addition, Lorelai, according to Hawke, was a great incentive for six-year-old Ellar. Being the daughter of the director, she confidently behaved on the set and this caused the boy the spirit of competition.
However, not everyone managed to penetrate the main character. Some found it boring and slow. To me, on the contrary, the development of the characters and sister and brother seemed very accurate and natural. In such a life.
Ellar has not yet decided what to do, but Lorelai already has something to show. In her twenties, she is already a fully accomplished artist. You can see a lot of her work online and even order something. Do you want to see it?
I watched a film with a friend from Texas, and he the whole film here and there admiringly recognized his life realities: the same fashionable childhood pillow, the mandatory Texas anthem at school, some memorable baseball game, which happened to be a film crew. But surprisingly, I also had plenty of recognising my Soviet childhood and youth in Texas. "All people are the same..."
Perhaps Linleiter's films are needed at least as markers of the moral health of mankind.
I'll probably refrain from evaluating it, too. I would love to see life in a parallel universe where Linklater films win Oscars and break the box office. Maybe this will finally happen to us?
Special thanks to our Russian distributors who did not decide to roll the masterpiece on the big screen.
Thank you for looking in Africa.
Finally, in the cinema closest to me, the screening of “Boyhood” began, a film that was praised by everyone who saw it.
I immediately went to the movies and for the first time in a very long time had a real aesthetic pleasure in the cinema. Richard Linklater’s new creation can affect anyone, because everyone can remember themselves in a particular scene and say, “Yes, I did that!” The picture shows real life: carefree life, relationships with parents, transitional age, first love and growing up. As in life, there are good and bad times, and throughout the film, the main character grows and changes.
Despite the lack of stars, you believe every actor. I don’t think anyone can be blamed for anything. It is also necessary to note the script - well-written dialogues, and the film does not let you get bored despite the large timekeeping.
For 12 years of creation, Linklater has done a great job, he made a real and human film, which elevated him to the rank of the best directors of our time.
The epic and unprecedentedness of the film “Boyhood” (in the Ukrainian box office – “Youth”) lies in an incredibly huge number of small details and nuances that after watching will surely settle in your mind and probably remain there forever.
It's incredibly difficult to put into words how powerful the aftertaste brings Richard Linklater's new creation. By touching the most delicate strings of the soul, it risks becoming for each viewer an extremely personal cinematic experience, which they will cherish for a very long time, and perhaps for the whole life.
Watching the maturation of the protagonist and his loved ones, as well as the changing world, everyone can draw a parallel with his youth and those years in which events occur. Very bright and at the same time unobtrusively draws a portrait of each period shown on the screen. Only an incredibly distant person from the modern world will not be able to get a dose of nostalgia from the changing behind-the-scenes soundtrack over time (to follow how gradually early Coldplay, Foo Fighters and blink-182 are replaced by Gotye, Phoenix, Kings of Leon and Arcade Fire is a special pleasure), mentioning the novelties of cinema for 2008, talk about George Bush, the election campaign of Barack Obama or the captured premiere of the sixth book about Harry Potter - Linklater presented to our attention the real chronicle of life from the time capsule.
It is surprising that in the absence of an emphasis on such standard and seemingly integral things as the first love, the first kiss, the first interview and the like, a full-fledged and most plausible picture of the protagonist’s youth and growing up is created. The director is not interested in showing how characters come to certain events and decisions, he shows fragments from those periods that most vividly describe the changes in the lives of Mason and his family. Thus, the film resembles a chain of memories, which, as it happens, are inexplicably deposited in our memory. Slicing moments that we remember stronger than any, even the most powerful life shocks, but have perhaps the most important due to their psychological influence. Therefore, the most important moments here are rare meetings with his father, everyday dialogues with his mother’s boyfriends, experience with older teenagers and conversations on philosophical topics with girls.
Richard Linklater made perhaps the most impressive and sincere film about life as it is. A movie that Terrence Malik himself tried to shoot for decades. A movie that we unknowingly needed.
Making a lot of noise at the Berlinale and other prestigious film screenings, without a doubt unique and therefore extremely valuable for world cinema, Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” reached Ukrainian screens, while passing Russian, oddly enough. Therefore, I decided to take advantage of this opportunity, which the Slavic brothers, unfortunately, have so far been deprived of. However, given the resonance that the film produced in Ukraine, I am afraid to assume that it will not even be able to cover the cost of dubbing, and given its high quality and the duration of the film itself, it was not cheap. I sat alone in the room. Even when I bought the ticket, the cashiers' faces were amazed by the saying, "How about a boyhood?" You probably wanted to say Hercules or Planet of the Apes? However, I watched the film, which I do not regret.
Experiments of this kind in cinema can be counted on the fingers of one hand because not every director has enough patience and endurance to devote 12 years to the production of one film, which is so ambiguous that it can simply not be accepted by the viewer and so much time will go to the tail. But Linklater probably knew what he was doing, and at any stage of the filming process, he clearly saw the end result. He is confident in his project, otherwise he would not send out invitations to influential people with the promise to compensate for the time spent watching if the film suddenly did not like.
Richard showed the audience 12 years from the life of an ordinary American family with ordinary household problems. Such family stories, it would seem, the darkness is dark and nothing unique in this tape is not, but in our case there is no constant change of actors, the viewer does not have to get used to the new guises of the main characters, however, we observe the most that neither is the ordinary growing up of children and the aging of their parents. The fact that the director chose the cast and “exploited” it for a decade gives the film an unprecedented naturalness and realism. Any sense of playfulness disappears, sometimes it even seems that you are watching not a feature film according to a pre-written script, but a real documentary.
The film has absolutely no purpose, except to show the transience of our lives and the impact of the changes taking place around it. The tape manages to immerse the viewer in the atmosphere of what is happening on the screen for the exceptional reason that under the life of Mason and his entourage he shows our life with you, and in almost every episode we recognize ourselves. Perhaps that is why the film looks so easy and unobtrusive, and 160 minutes of timekeeping pass almost imperceptibly.
Moments of the heroes’ lives were chosen so successfully that everything shown on the screen, despite the precipitousness, in some places inefficiency, results in one holistic picture that gives a complete picture of the lives of the heroes during this rather large period of time. After each time change, the viewer does not ask seemingly logical and quite logical questions such as “What happened during this time?” and “Why is everything so now?” A very competent script, which has been honed for years, leaves no need for such issues. Each of the previous segments explains the changes in the next, sometimes even you can clearly imagine what the overall picture will be a year later. And if other films excessive predictability of events would harm, in this case it works only for the benefit.
The cast is excellently selected. The difficulty of casting was the need to choose several actors who would agree to regularly for 12 years to return to the shooting process, therefore, the range of potential candidates was significantly narrowed. Nevertheless, each of the four main actors so qualitatively blended into his dogoyuschey image that during these almost three hours became simply native. I would especially like to mention, of course, Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette – an impeccable embodiment of the role of parents. Intermediate roles also turned out to be very expressive and memorable, whether it is a drinking professor who became the first stepfather for the young heroes, or to some extent a fanatical former military man who took the place of the second. I repeat – there is no feeling of riggedness, everything looks as natural as possible.
The trends of the times are shown perfectly. The viewer in the film of a non-documentary nature observes not only events from the lives of the characters, but also changes in the surrounding world. We see how fashion, music, politics are changing, we follow the development of technology. But again, all this is not shown so, just to show and conform to the concept of the film – everything has a logical place in the life of a particular family.
In conclusion, this is undoubtedly a great experiment in cinema, the masterpiece of which is difficult to overestimate because it is unique. Presented in the final scene, the main truth of the film, which titled my review, is not full of deep morality, but in combination with the strongest impression of viewing changes the worldview, and on the way out of the cinema you look at the world with different eyes.
Boyhood is a film about how Richard Linklater became great. Well, he was already a very prominent figure in American cinema, but it was “Boyhood” that elevated him to the pantheon of the movie gods. Previously, he sat on a seizure at the entrance, showed everyone his trilogy “Before...”, but apparently spent 27 years on it was not enough to ascend to the giants of this world. Another 12 years of "Boyhood" - and the problem is solved.
As in life, for three hours, Richard tells a story that you want to compare with some epic novel, but the knead does not allow it: he is modest and small for something huge. And who hasn’t seen the story of the family? But all the scale, attraction and fascination lies in these twelve years that Linklater spent on shooting.
Here you can see the reflection of an entire era in all its simplicity and elegance: how technology, fashion, musical preferences, political views, houses, rooms, roads changed. How the world changed around the child, who eventually knew him just like Stephen Daedalus in “Portrait of an artist in his youth” by James Joyce. Only in the case of Mason – through the camera lens.
It is also important in “Boyhood” not only about what, but how. The camera, maneuvering between the main characters, choosing large and general plans of different sizes, gently, but with some invisible pressure, breaks the fates of the main characters, but before each stage of growing up, it does not forget to glue them together. But over the years, the boy Mason becomes stronger, and his voice and character become more confident and louder. You can't just break it now.
Realizing that the boy can not play the game, Linklater prescribes the second introductory, which is loved in independent films – the notorious middle class, full of problems in communication not so much with an outside society, but with each other within the family, whose components are constantly changing: the guy replaced two stepfathers, typical representatives of the “talking link”: one – an alcoholic teacher, the other – an alcoholic-military.
Despite the fact that Richard makes the viewer feel uncomfortable, the characters with pride and medieval nobility go through beatings, insults and broken dishes. And this saves from comparison with their own lives, as the heroes take the full blow. The invaluable experience of “household” has an unimaginable effect: characters change, are polished, get rid of the chaff. They become simple, but pure and sincere.
Thanks to this, Mason somehow grows up beautifully, and his relatives age beautifully: Patricia Arquette has attractive wrinkles, and Ethan Hawk gets gray temples and harsh father's mustache. Mason does not bother to shave, but remains a pretty young man with plump lips and a big head. People become prettier, and the objects around them are smaller and insignificant.
“Adolescence” can not be admired, if only because of Linklater’s stubbornness to show what others do not have patience for. It seems that this picture is a reflection of Richard himself. Even though he is 53 years old, he looks relaxed, direct, and childish without worrying about the passage of time. I hope he naively thinks he will live forever.
The final scene shows that perfectly. And you can't disagree with her. Everyone says you have to live in the moment. An undeniable statement, but there are a lot of moments, and most of them lose their meaning over time, cease to be important. But there is another side to follow. It is that all life is one continuous moment. What do you want to do? You just have to live and enjoy what you have.
Richard does it, Mason does it, and we do it, falling in love with the best independent film of all time.
Richard Linklater can be called the most patient director of our time. After his famous trilogy, which he shot at intervals of 9 years, the director presents to the public another masterpiece, which he shot this time for 12 years. On the one hand, this is clearly a successful way to pick up actors, on the other hand, it is an even more successful way to show the formation and maturation of people for such a solid period of time.
The main character of the picture - Mason, molests at the beginning of a six-year-old boy from an ordinary American family, with his own problems.
And familiar to most people. The boy’s mother does everything for a better life for him and his sister, the father occasionally appears in their lives, desperately trying to somehow take part in the upbringing of children. As events unfold, the characters grow, the family moves to another city, their stepfather appears in their family and so on. Along with the characters, life develops: in America, presidents change, in classes instead of multi-colored iMac G3, thin monoblocks appear. There's no point in retelling the story. The main thing that this picture shows, of course, is not the plot, it is in principle quite ordinary (common, but not banal). This is basically a story about what happens to us between the ages of 6 and 20. This film will be especially close to those who are now the same age as Mason at the end of the film (18-20 years). The director clearly managed to achieve naturalness and sincerity from the heroes. During these almost 3 hours you literally live the most important period in the life of the heroes. Looking at Mason as a teenager, you remember how small he was and how his voice, appearance and character changed. The picture makes you smile, hearing the jokes of the characters and recognizing yourself in many of their actions. A special role is played by the character of Ethan Hawke (father of Mason). From a doomed man sharpened in the crisis of middle age, he becomes an exemplary family man, still immensely loving his children.
This film will definitely go down in the history of cinema, and not only because of the filming process that stretched over a decade. Everyone should watch this movie to see themselves from the outside. This film literally opens our eyes to our lives, showing what ultimately turns out to be the most important thing for a person: family, love. And this is especially sad that most likely this film for unknown reasons will not see the Russian audience.
This film goes beyond what movies are usually judged by.