“In making Boyhood, Richard Linklater truly has created something never before seen in a fiction feature film,” writes Nadia Neophytou.
Ever since Boyhood made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January, it’s been earning high praise – at times seemingly-hyperbolic praise – from critics. Phrases like “film of the decade” and “unlike anything ever seen before” have been attached to descriptions of it. But there’s good reason for that – 12 years’ worth of reason.
In making Boyhood, a passion project for one of America’s most idiosyncratic filmmakers, Richard Linklater truly has created something never before seen in a fiction feature film. In documentary form, the novelty of filming people as they grow older has, to a degree, been used, as seen in the long-running series Up, which follows real-life subjects as they age (and in the South African version, Mandela’s Children) but up until now, the idea of ageing a fictional cast on film – without special effects or make-up was a palette untouched.
In 2002, Linklater, with the surprise success of now cult-classics Slacker and Dazed & Confused behind him, began making the film, casting 6-year-old Ellar Coltrane in the lead role. The free-spirited Coltrane seemed ideal to play the son of divorced parents, alongside Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, with the director’s daughter Lorelai Linklater taking on the role of his sister. For the next 12 years, they’d film bits of the movie – vignettes that would eventually come together to make the 2 hours and 45 minutes of the film that is wowing those who see it today.
For full report see Mail & Guardian
