i know someone who went to a 5 hour secret screening of it about a year ago with linklater and most of the cast at the violet crown in downtown austin. they were forced to sign no disclosure agreements, turn of cell phones, ect. after the film they were asked a bunch of questions by linklater himself about what they thought of the movie. they told me that even though it was 5 hours they never really got bored and were wondering how they could possibly edit it down.
That's really interesting. The Mrs. and I watched it last night in SF. It clocked just under 3 hours, which surprised me*, and I'm glad it wasn't 5. It's an amazing achievement, and I'll be thinking about this movie for a long, long time. Without spoiling anything, here are some high points for what the movie does, I think, plus a couple of things I (surprisingly) didn't like as much. 1. It's captures sooo many moments of growing up that I've never seen on film before. This includes just tiny passing details and moments that are more important than we think. 2. Even in the cliché territory of other "growing up" movies, it has its own voice. And there's a new weight to such a scene, even if it's familiar, when you've literally seen the actors age ten years already. That's just totally new territory. 3. I loved the lack of judgment in the movie. And the director's spoken about this. You see some very liberal and very conservative people in Texas and they, I think, are given an even treatment. I won't say more due to spoilerage, but it's very, very cool. You just couldn't see some of these scenes out of today's normal Hollywood machine. 4. It made me miss the hell out of Texas. Just an amazing film using Texas as a setting. It actually helped that San Franciscans thought they were knowingly giggling at the Texas-ness in parts, but they had no idea whatsoever. Okay, my negatives should proly spoiler. Spoiler 5. I thought the last 1-1.5 hours were really dragging compared to the first half. There was just no dramatic tension compared to the first half, when some bad situations hung over the characters. Mrs. B-Bob did NOT have this problem. She said it was just part of the adults "figuring stuff out, which is how it usually happens." Interesting take. 6. Maybe b/c I thought it was dragging, but I started wondering if Linklater, much as I like him and much I love this project... whiffed on a bigger opportunity. When's the next time somebody will spend 12 years and change making a movie like this? I'm not smart enough to know what I'd do differently, but the story is sooo normal, in some sense, that I wonder if it's specific enough or took enough chances. Mrs. B-Bob gives it a big thumbs up for "being profound in its simplicity." I'm not so sure. Really, you spend 12 years for the story of an emo art student who tries beer, smokes pot a couple of times, and then enrolls in Sul Ross? 9 out of 10 though. I hope everyone sees it. * = my new thing is to watch and read almost nothing about a movie before I see it. And it's soooo much more enjoyable than what I used to do, which was watch and read everything I could, b/c that was so fun. But then watching the movie wasn't very magical. Sorry if a lot of my thoughts have already been posted in one form or another in this thread. I scanned it but not slowly.
It's really, really not a tear-jerker. And as a lot of people were expecting a documentary, it almost feels more like a documentary in a way. It is just absolutely about *life* for 12 years. A very normal kind of life. I like kevC's summary at the end of the first page of this thread. Maybe it would be more of a tear-jerker if I had kids? Or if my parents had split up? (That's not a spoiler, the divorce is basically obvious in frame one of the film). mrs. B-Bob didn't cry either. It's very mellow. It's almost like you're at some kind of crazy wine tasting, where a director slowly brings out the wine year to year to show you how it's aging.
About the second point in your spoilered "negative comments"... Spoiler I've seen some stuff online that suggests Linklater kept a very open mind on how the plot will progress depending on how the child actor actually grew up. He adapted his script to the kid's life basically. If the kid ended up growing up to be a jock, he would've adapted to that. Instead, the kid grew up to be a very sensitive, counter-culture kind of young man, so he wrote the movie that way. In my opinion, that's pretty much the only way he should have dealt with the script, and it's absolutely brilliant.
I haven't seen the movie yet and I would love to see the 5 hour cut they could've pulled a Kill Bill split with 2 volumes
Thanks for that -- I've seen some of the same reporting now, and it does totally make sense. Considering seeing it again while it's at the theaters.
Best movie this year. Everyone who should check it out. But especially if you grew up in Houston and/or Texas.
The movie needed more Ethan hawke and Patricia arquette. I thought boyhood himself was kind of a vagina boy. I lol when his military step dad made fun of his nails and called him a lil b****.
I posted about this flick in the "Rate the last movie(s) you watched" thread 2 or 3 times. It's easily Linklater's best film since Dazed and Confused, in my opinion. This could have been awful. Instead, it is brilliant. The risk paid off for Linklater, and I think it'll get some Oscar nominations. It should.
You need to see a lot more if you think this is one of the greatest movies ever made, really? I grew up in Houston, it's not the best movie of the year, that goes to Guardian of the Galaxy.
I saw guardians today and I thought it was pretty good. Extra points from me because I always liked thanos a lot from when I read comics. But I know for sure it isn't really even close to the best movie I saw this year. Just me. Crazy thing, everyone has an opinion.
As pretentious as this sounds, it is truly an achievement in filmmaking. Easily one of the better movies I can remember seeing in recent memory.
I agree achievement in Film-making. Linklater for best director this year, yes. But as a narrative feature, it's flat. By the third act I was about done with the kid didn't care much for his teenage years as it grew tiresome and pretty bland but I did like the last shot of the film.
That's fair criticism, no doubt. For me, the sheer scope and technical difficulty of the movie made up what was indeed a relatively flat narrative feature, as you said.
This movie was epic. And I mean that in a very different sense of how the word is used. Those complaining about a flat narrative; this is what Linklatter does. He portrays real life. Real life isn't a movie; it has its ups and downs, and most of it is mundane. What we see in movies is drama, meaning and purpose. Life simply is. We just assign purpose and meaning after the fact. So in watching 'life' unfold in this movie, I think the very fact that some parts are mundane, ie: life moves on. is powerful indeed.
watched it over the weekend, and loved it I'm not much of a Linklater fan, he's one of those directors that you either love him or just don't get him, in the same field as Kevin Smith, Tarantino, Wes Anderson, and countless others. Loved all of the pop culture references where you knew what year it was, from the video game systems, the song they played, movie mentions, to even a Kam favorite, a High School Musical reference Still wondering how they kept this movie so secretive, it had some pretty open scenes all around Houston at Miller Outdoor Theater, streets in downtown, and of course the MMP scene. That little girl sitting next to them kept looking at the cast and camera had laughing. easily my favorite movie of the year, with Grand Budapest Hotel, Winter Soldier, GotG rounding out my top movies of the year will catch it again before it bows out in theaters
