Head Tale

Every year, Shea and I go to a movie for my birthday, a tradition that probably stretches back well over a decade now.

Since my birthday is in mid-July, most years, we go to some big summer blockbuster – the latest Marvel or Batman or Jurassic Park movie (told you we go back a ways!)

But this year, I was hopeful I’d get to see something very different – probably the most highly anticipated independent film in a long time.

I’m already a *huge* Richard Linklater fan and love the “Before Midnight” trilogy, “Dazed and Confused” and so much of his other work.  So when I heard that, like with the “Before Midnight” trilogy which followed a couple over a long span of time with the second and third films being made with the same cast but a decade apart, he’d made a new film which also played with traditional movie conventions around the passage of time.

For this one, instead of casting a different actor at different ages or using make-up tricks, he cast a six year old boy then did a small amount of filming each year for 12 years so you would see the boy (and all other characters including Linklater mainstay, Ethan Hawke and personal favourite, Patricia Arquette) age in real time throughout the film as well.

“Boyhood” was due to be released the same weekend as my birthday but because it’s a small independent film, it turned out that it was only released in Toronto to start.  Then in other big Canadian cities after that. That means it’s only finally reached Regina now, two months after my birthday.

As soon as Shea noticed that it was here (and I should mention, it’s also at RPL’s Art House Film Theatre in October but I couldn’t wait – although there’s a good chance I might go again!) we booked the babysitter and were able to go yesterday.

I’d read some reviews saying it was maybe the best movie ever made and others saying that once you got past the real-life time travel gimmick, it was a pretty standard drama film.  So I wasn’t sure what to expect.

We went and both things turned out to be true – it was a standard family drama film in many ways and also one of the most amazing films I’ve ever seen!  As I watched, I realised it could be both things simultaneously – while it was about the mundanity of everyday life on one level, the fact that you also watched the characters grow, change and age in real time took this film to a whole different level in a way I’ve never seen before (the closest would be the “Up” documentary series from the UK but that’s much different than what Linklater’s done here in a fictional world and over a single (long) film.)

Beyond that, Pace is basically the same age as the main character at the start of the film so that made it even more resonant for Shea and I.  When we discussed the film on the drive home, we both admitted that we spent a lot of time while watching the movie thinking about Pace and his own growth and development over the next 12 years or so until, like the boy in the film, he leaves the nest and goes out on his own.

I’d have to read some interviews with Linklater or others involved with the film but one thing I wondered was whether the boy was playing a “scripted” character or if Linklater integrated elements of the boy as he grew right into the script – his interest in photography or whatever?

I don’t know what else to say – I feel like I’m still processing the film in many ways (which is something that doesn’t really happen when I go to the latest summer blockbuster!) 😉

So why not just watch the trailer then make a point to go see this film?  Whether you like the actual story itself, I don’t think you’ll regret having seen it (if that makes sense.)