Post: #1

Saw this in theaters last night. Solid movie directed by the guy who did School of Rock and Before Sunrise.

Quote:Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater's BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason's parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay's Yellow to Arcade Fire's Deep Blue. BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.

It's receiving high ratings and great reviews, and it speaks the truth. Particularly that single motherhood is not to be celebrated. The dangers of being a provider beta. The spinsterhood that awaits those who make poor decisions in choosing men.

There was a moment when the father is telling the son that women are always looking to trade up. The muted nervous chuckle that ensued from all the women in the theater was revelatory.

Watch this movie.

Post: #2

Will consider giving this a look. Thanks.

Post: #3

Was hoping someone here would review it.
Will be seeing it for sure now.

Post: #4

Nice. I really like Ethan Hawke, and Linklater has done some interesting things before. Will definitely check this one out.

Below is a clip of Hawke running EXACTLY the type of nighttime street game that I have run in NYC and had girls back at mine in minutes.

The bitch in the clip is cold, but his rambling and being completely present will make a girls panties melt.

Post: #5

Looks like it's well worth seeing.

As blue pill as it can be, Before Sunrise is a very good film. I actually preferred Sunset.

I watched Midnight a bit after it came out, and didn't like it. Couldn't finish it. I don't know if this is because it was around the time I really "unplugged", or because it wasn't very good. I mean, I like the other two movies, but I don't recall seeing them post red pill.

I do remember their conversations being very genuine. I picture Zan Perrion being like this. Same with the Ethan Hawke video Goldmund shared.

Post: #6

Linklater also did "Dazed and Confused." There's some classic lines in that one...

Post: #7

^^ Dammit you beat me to it DOBA - curses!

Post: #8

(07-23-2014 09:59 PM)Goldmund Wrote:  Nice. I really like Ethan Hawke, and Linklater has done some interesting things before. Will definitely check this one out.

Below is a clip of Hawke running EXACTLY the type of nighttime street game that I have run in NYC and had girls back at mine in minutes.

The bitch in the clip is cold, but his rambling and being completely present will make a girls panties melt.

Ah man, that clip was disappointing. I know I'm meant to laugh at how that ended, but all I could hear was the inchoate hive crying "NAWALT"

Post: #9

^^ Who is the actress in that clip?

Post: #10

Saw this tonight. Fantastic movie.

One of the biggest truths this movie shines a light on is the importance of having the father of the children present versus a step-father (which some would like us to believe are just an interchanable male influence). Throughout the movie, Mason Sr (Hawke) tries to make an impact on Mason and his sister, all the while knowing he's not there all the time.

Contrast the love Mason Sr shows his children against the indifference shown by the two stepfathers. Bill (the first stepfather) has a son and daughter of his own. The whole time, he shows favoritism towards his own flesh and blood and disdain for Mason and his sister. Then Jim (stepfather #2) has no children of his own. Jim treats the children as burdens, going so far as to play the "show me respect or I throw your mom out" card when Mason breaks curfew.

Ultimately, it reminded me of a line from the movie Thank You For Smoking. "I'm his father, you're just the guy fucking his mom."

FWIW, I have to imagine this movie is gonna get some love at the Oscars, even if it shows the downside of the accepted faith of the voters.

Post: #11

Linklater likes Austin, where I live. I recognized four people in this movie--two who had speaking parts. I'm hearing around the acting community that others had parts as well. Dazed and Confused and some of his other movies were made here as well.

Marco Perella did an outstanding as the first stepfather. He's a really nice guy and is one of the better acting coaches in town. I was very happy to see him get a big role like this.

Post: #12

I just saw this last night. A measure of a movie is what people do after the credits roll. I sat in my seat, sad that it ended and we couldn't continue on the journey with Mason Jr. (the main character) and also out of a sense of awe of what I just saw. Just goes to show that you don't need special effects to make an audience spellbound. Linklater is now someone I'll be looking out for. It must have taken a strong vision and some luck to get a movie like this done over 12 years.

There were definitely some red pill moments in the film. In one scene, Mason Sr. (character played by Ethan Hawke) councils Mason Jr. about not relying on relationships with women to give you self esteem. Self-esteem must come from within yourself. Also, that you should try to be good at something and women will flock to you.

I highly recommend this film.

Post: #13

Just got the movie. Looking forward to watching it tonight.

Post: #14

I watched Boyhood last night. It was incredibly well-made; it’s been spoken about ad nauseum about how magical it is to watch the young boy grow as the movie plays through. Truly allowed a suspension of disbelief as at times I felt I was watching some sort of documentary or biopic. Here are a few of thoughts I had while watching.

-It was hard at times to watch the poor parenting of the boy’s mother. She really got on my fucking nerves. She would go through a cycle of hooking up with drunken assholes, get treated like shit, her children would whine about their situation, and the mom would take her frustration out on them. I really hate watching shit parenting, especially from mothers. That scene with Jesse in Breaking Bad where he breaks into the junkie’s house and sees the dirty little boy watching infomercials hits me every time. I really enjoyed reading 2Wycked's analysis of the importance of mothers using Archer as a medium of examination. He did a great job of explaining the effects of bad mothering, though you don’t really see those effects on the boy so much in this film.

-The mother in Boyhood attempts to do the right thing but is ultimately quite selfish and out of her depth. Ironically in the film she studies psychology at night school and eventually teaches the subject at a community college. 61% of psychology majors are nut jobs (lowball estimate). I was ready to give this woman an armchair diagnosis of some sort of Cluster B personality disorder, but then just decided she was a shitty mother. There was a theme throughout the community college scenes involving Skinner’s operant conditioning research and I tried to see how it connected to the movie at large. Somehow the mother experienced a reward for hooking up with poor father substitutes for her children. Another thing I noticed about the mom was that she was great interacting with her junior college students and with immigrant workers yet had a toxic relationship with her children. Ah, the modern American woman. She gives an insane speech at the end when the boy is 18 and, against all odds, against all of her poor parenting skills, goes to study at a decent college. The woman makes it about her and how she feels that now that her children have left the house all she can do is sit around and wait to die. She goes on a hysterical rant rather than experience joy for her son who is taking a step toward manhood.

-Speaking of American women, I noticed the mom hit the wall HARD after just a couple of years. In the beginning of the film she has long blonde hair, and is quite slender. A 6.5, maybe a 7 if done up right. 3 or 4 years later she packs on 30 lbs and chops her hair off after she marries an alcoholic asshole. While it was remarkable to see the boy grow older, it was nearly as interesting to see how over a span of 10-15 years you see a woman go from a decent looking 28 or so, to a chubby 40 year old slob with a couple of divorces under her sizeable belt.

-Anyone who has a sister will connect with some of the scenes. Their interactions were amusing.

-The sound track is perfect, and so are the cool references to late 90s/early 00s pop culture. You see the boy watching Dragonball Z and play with a Gameboy advance, which briefly teleported me to my own childhood.

-It is true that the father in the film spouts red pill wisdom. He explains that women are never satisfied and are always trying to trade up. Get good at something and make yourself, not your woman, your primary objective.

- One complaint I have is that you never get to know the boy. At certain points it feels like he is just going through the motions of boyhood but you don’t get to know much about what he thinks. I wondered what he thought about his mother’s choices, about his sister and her friends, about growing up. He shows some personality as a teenager when he rails against smartphones and technology, and later about seizing the moment, but as a young boy you just see him observe what is happening around him. That may have been the point, but I was curious about what was going on inside this character’s head.

Overall a fantastic movie. Highly recommended.

Post: #15

Boyhood is my favorite film of 2014 so far. It is beautiful.

Post: #16

Quote:- One complaint I have is that you never get to know the boy. At certain points it feels like he is just going through the motions of boyhood but you don’t get to know much about what he thinks. I wondered what he thought about his mother’s choices, about his sister and her friends, about growing up. He shows some personality as a teenager when he rails against smartphones and technology, and later about seizing the moment, but as a young boy you just see him observe what is happening around him. That may have been the point, but I was curious about what was going on inside this character’s head.

Just watched the movie. Awesome soundtrack!

And yes I agree, at some points I wondered if the film would have been better if it had included narrations by the boy? This thought specially came to me on his birthday scene were they tell him to make a wish.

Post: #17

I did an attempt to watch this movie, but I couldn't pass the 30 minutes mark, so I left the theater. What I've seen is not better than the average cheaply made soap series.

I'll be the first to admit I'm not entitled to comment extensively on this film, after all I just saw a small part of it, but based on what I've seen it looks like a song to the matrix: it celebrates the blue-pill establishment, where fattening women (whether mothers or "empowered girls") abound, insulting beta males, and so on. Again, that's what I've seen in the first 30 minutes.

The music is perhaps the best part of the movie, some good songs at the start.

I don't think anyone can convince me of watching the remaining 2 hours, so here is my 2cents warning to those who haven't seen Boyhood yet. I'm not going with the Oscar hype this time.

Post: #18

(01-18-2015 07:38 AM)michelin Wrote:  I did an attempt to watch this movie, but I couldn't pass the 30 minutes mark, so I left the theater. What I've seen is not better than the average cheaply made soap series.

I really liked it, but I did feel that the beginning was the worst part. I actually brought a few people to see it with me and around the 30-minute mark I was getting nervous that I had dragged them to a shitty movie.

The movie doesn't really have a plot, it's more a collection of major points in the kid's life, so it definitely can come across as too dramatic. Condensing 12 years to 3 hours is always going to be like that though.

Post: #19

(01-18-2015 08:24 AM)Hedonistic Traveler Wrote:  

(01-18-2015 07:38 AM)michelin Wrote:  I did an attempt to watch this movie, but I couldn't pass the 30 minutes mark, so I left the theater. What I've seen is not better than the average cheaply made soap series.

I really liked it, but I did feel that the beginning was the worst part. I actually brought a few people to see it with me and around the 30-minute mark I was getting nervous that I had dragged them to a shitty movie.

The movie doesn't really have a plot, it's more a collection of major points in the kid's life, so it definitely can come across as too dramatic. Condensing 12 years to 3 hours is always going to be like that though.

Those first 30 minutes were just boring as hell, full of kitschy fluff. I see myself as a patient guy and like it when tension builds up, but here I felt this was going nowhere. Same thing with fat books: when I don't like the first 30-50 pages, I just toss it and move on to better stuff.

Post: #20

Great film with some good red pill elements.

SPOILERS
Specifically the part when his girlfriend left him for the Lacrosse player. He tried to rationalize that he was somehow "deeper" and therefore better than the athlete, but in reality, this does not mean anything to women. The lacrosse player had higher SMV and therefore would triumph.

Post: #21

For what I´ve seen of it, these guys of Half in the Bag got it right:

http://blip.tv/redlettermedia/episode-7004078