[ctviggen]

At 10 years your senior, I didn't think it was a piece of crap, but it wasn't in my top 100 for the year either.

You've seen 100 movies this year?  Wow. 

[macrojack]

You've seen 100 movies this year?  Wow.

That's especially impressive after only 45 days. But it's possible.

I'm retired now and have been binging on Netflix streaming, watching anywhere from 1 to 5 films a day, seven days/week. Don't know my total but could look into the matter because Netflix remembers everything.

[ctviggen]

We have two young kids, so we see few movies that aren't kids' movies.  We have Boyhood, but it's so long, it'll take us two nights (which means likely two weekends) to watch it. 

[macrojack]

We have two young kids, so we see few movies that aren't kids' movies.  We have Boyhood, but it's so long, it'll take us two nights (which means likely two weekends) to watch it.

We took two nights to watch it here. My wife still works so I pick and choose what we will watch together. Since we go to bed at 8:00 P.M. we make it work by skipping television altogether. I can feel my IQ rising. Plus I no longer allow Billy Mays clones or the Parilman Law Firm into my home. What a wonderful purge that represents!!!

[Mike B.]

I thought it took too long to tell a very simple story. I give the producers credit for the 12 year project. The acting was very good for the most part. I don't see it as the best film winner.

[ajzepp]

I'll be 68 come August and my opinion is that analysis of this film compromises the experience. Just as the exposition is seamless and whole contextually and in real time, the ingestion must flow similarly. For me it was all about the effect you feel from having watched - not really about production values or techniques or anybody's performance.

And as for plot, what are you seeking? Espionage? Explosions? Homicide? The title is Boyhood. Isn't that what the film was really about? We lived life through the eyes and experiences of a young boy from the first years where he can begin to intelligently assess the activities and repercussions that make up his life until he emerges from his family upbringing at the threshold of adulthood when he starts college. Who the hell can't identify with that? I mean, we all grew up. Right?

The younger generation didn't grow up...they plugged in.

I think my generation - the Gen X'ers - were the last ones that truly had a traditional childhood lol.

[macrojack]

The younger generation didn't grow up...they plugged in.

I think my generation - the Gen X'ers - were the last ones that truly had a traditional childhood lol.

Nearly everyone who participates here grew up "plugged in". As an early boomer, I was the first gen to grow up with TV. And within ten years I was wrapped around WABC with Big Dan and Cousin Brucie. From there I took on the nose ring of the British Invasion. Along the way movies grabbed me and hi fi took hold. I've been plugged in and tuned in since before my first pimple. So --- how are today's youth so different? I think it really just comes down to the versatility and sophistication of their devices. Obviously I didn't have a cell phone but I did have a transistor radio. Most of us had some sort of suitcase record player (preferably stereo) by our mid teens. And Discman filled in later. In short, it was always there. We only had about a dozen TV stations and no video games. The bigger difference lies in how many of us had 2 parents and how many Moms were home watching us. But society has adapted and cable news has done its best to make life worse by over reporting crimes and providing divisive commentary. Nonetheless, I think the kids of today are more advanced sociologically than most adults --- and certainly more so than my generation.
If we can keep our lawmakers from stripping us of everything we hold dear, all will be well.

[charmerci]

I just watched it this evening.

First the good. It is quite the accomplishment. The children acted really well throughout. It really is impressive to see those kids grow up in a film.

It really could have used more editing. There was simply too much of what goes on in daily life. Yawn. I didn't need to see that - we know already. We "know" what goes on (school, party etc.) so we didn't need to see long scenes of that - the results of an action, resulting dialogue or the interaction (story) of the family and friends should have developed more or should have been the primary focus of the film. The first part was too slow and could have been cut down a lot whereas the latter parts of the film improved on that.

Linklater I think just tried to cover too much. Far too many things happened too quickly with minimal development and quick resolutions. He should have made it in two parts with more stories.

I'm glad my friend got it from Netflix so I didn't have to pay for it.

[ajzepp]

I just watched it this evening.

First the good. It is quite the accomplishment. The children acted really well throughout. It really is impressive to see those kids grow up in a film.

It really could have used more editing. There was simply too much of what goes on in daily life. Yawn. I didn't need to see that - we know already. We "know" what goes on (school, party etc.) so we didn't need to see long scenes of that - the results of an action, resulting dialogue or the interaction (story) of the family and friends should have developed more or should have been the primary focus of the film. The first part was too slow and could have been cut down a lot whereas the latter parts of the film improved on that.

Linklater I think just tried to cover too much. Far too many things happened too quickly with minimal development and quick resolutions. He should have made it in two parts with more stories.

I'm glad my friend got it from Netflix so I didn't have to pay for it.

See a lot of that was what made it authentic to me...I loved the whole "fly on the wall" aspect.

[wushuliu]

See a lot of that was what made it authentic to me...I loved the whole "fly on the wall" aspect.

Right. I think some folks are wanting more of a traditional problem/conflict/resolution but that's not what Boyhood is going for. Certainly wasn't what my boyhood was about.

[charmerci]

Right. I think some folks are wanting more of a traditional problem/conflict/resolution but that's not what Boyhood is going for. Certainly wasn't what my boyhood was about.

Yeah but if I want to see people hanging out together, I'll visit my friends and their families and watch them. I'm not interested in seeing that on the big screen.

[wushuliu]

Yeah but if I want to see people hanging out together, I'll visit my friends and their families and watch them. I'm not interested in seeing that on the big screen.

Some of us find it interesting how much people and those around them change over time.

I mean, the movie's called Boyhood.

I'd also like to say how nice it was to NOT watch an indie film with the usual jangly guitar soundtrack or philip glass piano minimalism and kubricky framing and quaint ridiculous plot and 'smart, snappy' dialogue.

[Rob Babcock]

As long as it was I didn't want it to end!  I know it was a movie but the director said a lot of folks misunderstood it and thought it was a documentary.  To me I'd call that a compliment.  There was no artifice about it, almost no sense that it was a film.  I really felt like I was watching sliced of the lives of real people.  And who wouldn't identify with what they're going through, so well as they're portrayed.  It brought back floods of memories; the idle carefree aspects of childhood tinged with confusion over why Dad isn't there, the awkwardness of adolescence and trying to figure out who you are, the earnestness of that first romantic love and the agony when it ends...The film handled it all with aplomb.

I have no desire to try to talk someone into liking something they don't like!   But I can't help gushing about this film.  To me it really is one of the best of the last ten years or so.  And the moving film I've seen since Her.

[charmerci]

I admit that it does leave an impression but I just feel that it could have been more powerful.

For example - no spoilers - there were long stretches where not much happens, then bam, bam - a crisis occurs and then in a few minutes it's all over and I want to ask, well what happened after that?

[wushuliu]

I admit that it does leave an impression but I just feel that it could have been more powerful.

For example - no spoilers - there were long stretches where not much happens, then bam, bam - a crisis occurs and then in a few minutes it's all over and I want to ask, well what happened after that?

But that's where some of us are disagreeing with you: a LOT happens in the movie. There is a lot of sh*t going down, it's just not played out for you like a traditional drama. What happens is not 'all over', it carries and builds from scene to scene as subtext. Just like a memory.

[charmerci]

But that's where some of us are disagreeing with you:

I was really looking forward to this movie and I really wanted to like it. I was just giving my opinion why it disappointed me.

What difference does it make if one or more people disagree with me?

[ajzepp]

Right. I think some folks are wanting more of a traditional problem/conflict/resolution but that's not what Boyhood is going for. Certainly wasn't what my boyhood was about.

Agreed. That one scene at the dinner table when the kids were still kids and the father was raging, that REALLY hit home with me. Not in a literal sense, cause my dad wasn't an alcoholic by any means...but I know what it feels like when you're a kid and one or both of your parents are yelling. Doesn't matter if they're yelling at you, the other parent, nobody in particular, etc...you internalize it and you feel like you're to blame. And then you take it a step further and fear that your parents are on a trajectory toward divorce. UGH lol...just one of a dozen scenes that I related to in a really deep way.

[wushuliu]

I was really looking forward to this movie and I really wanted to like it. I was just giving my opinion why it disappointed me.

What difference does it make if one or more people disagree with me?

It doesn't I was just summing up an argument. Its all good. We're just talkin here.