Boyhood: More Oscar Stuff

Boyhood was the incredibly BOLD and DARING move by Richard Linklater to film a movie across 12 years following the same group of characters as their lives evolve and change through the year. I struggle with these movies a lot because I really enjoyed school and high school, so the whole teenage angsty thing is pretty much lost on me. I played sports and wasn't particularly emo-y or artsy, so I roll into this biased. The movie follows a divorced Mom (Patricia Arquette, who is VERY hot in the early years I want to mention), her daughter (played by Linklater's actual daughter), son, and their biological father (Ethan Hawke, who rocks). It goes through the trials and tribulations of primarily the son with a dash of everyone else. It is really fascinating to see the physical changes in the characters throughout the years and how their lives are moving along. There is some drama from Arquette marrying dude's with some issues. Hawke is flawed in the regard that he is all about having fun, living life, and not being a responsible parent in the kids earlier years. The problem that I have is that the gimmick of being filmed for 12 years is what makes this special. It's following around people, almost documentary-like and that about sums it up. Bottom line: 7.2 out of 10. I was largely unimpressed by this film due to the fact of the sizzle outweighing the substance. Ellar Coltrane will be working in Hollywood for a long time and Arquette and Hawke are both excellent, but it really is a rather boring slice of life film at it's core. My inability to empathize with the characters really has a negative effect on my rating I'm quite certain.