“Boyhood: 12 Moments That Seize You”
I don’t know how I stumbled upon this article, but I really like it. From the website Write Out of L.A., Robin Write has posted an excellent take on one of my favorite movies of 2014 Boyhood.
From the opening frame of Mason staring up into the sky, through twelve years, to Mason being away from home and family with his potential new friends, Boyhood depicts parts of life. Moments we kind of often take for granted. Or remember differently to someone else. Moments you do not often see in cinema, but are around you all time. And always have been. Richard Linklater poignantly captures these significant life events of all shapes and sizes in the magnificent Boyhood. I’m sure you have all seen it by now, and all have your favorite scenes that touched you. Here are 12 (of course, twelve, but could easily have been forty) smaller moments in the film that lingered with me.
Here are three of the moments Robin selected:
MASON’S HOMEWORK
When Mason’s mom hears he has not handed in many of his homework assignments, his response is that the teacher did not ask for them. It is an instant signal that our protagonist is merely a small boy at this point. And that children are likely more logical than we give them credit for.
MOM DOES NOT HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS
The final scene with mom when she breaks down is the one most folks talk about (and likely Oscar nomination clip), but much earlier in the movie when they are finally rid of Bill, mom bursts into tears when she can’t answer her daughter’s concerns. You truly feel for a mother who is heartbroken that she does not have the answers right now.
BOYS GO CAMPING
Mason gets some male-bonding time with his dad as they go camping. They talk generally about kissing girls, Star Wars, and peeing on camp fires. The real magic of this sequence is how comfortable they appear to be as they catch up on the parts of their respective lives they may have missed thus far.
Boyhood is a marvel for a myriad of reasons, but Robin has zeroed in on the single biggest narrative dynamic: Moments. The final scene in the movie involves college freshman Mason out in the raw beauty of West Texas with some newly found friends.
One of them, Nicole, says this: “You know how everyone’s always saying, ‘Seize the moment’? I don’t know, I’m kinda thinkin’ it’s the other way around. You know, like, the moment seizes us.”
To which Mason responds: “Yeah, I know. It’s constant, the moments, it’s just… it’s like always right now, you know.”
And that is in some way the central theme of the movie, not only about human experience, but the way in which Boyhood tells its story. It drops into Mason and his family’s existence moment to moment. But unlike a movie that transpires over many years like Forrest Gump which focuses on big moments — winning college football games, meeting Presidents, Vietnam, Watergate — Boyhood does precisely the opposite. It highlights ordinary moments. That’s one of the beauties of the movie, how it takes us into these seemingly mundane slices of life and explores the emotional life flowing through them.
Author Anne Beattie has one of my favorite quotes: “People forget years and remember moments.” I think that applies to writing stories… watching movies… and living life.
Boyhood reminds us of that.
For the rest of Robin’s post to see his nine other favorite moments from the movie, go here.
Twitter: @WriteoutofLA.