Boyhood

After watching this film I immediately came to the reviews here because I was curious to see what people said. I’ve found many people saying it was trash and aimless, and maybe this is just the nihilistic 18 year old in me speaking, but I  thought that was exactly the point. This movie isn’t meant, like many Hollywood blockbusters are, to take you on a wild ride and deposit you somewhere unexpected. Throughout Mason’s childhood there is hope that his life may turn out better than his mother’s, and as he experiences new traumas that hope dwindles until he is no longer a curious child but a depressed adolescent who’s convinced everything is a conspiracy against human happiness. We’re meant to fall in love with this type of introspective, nerdy character, feeling everything with him until at the end of the film he turns into a disappointing, pretentious college kid who who only lives to smoke weed and mope about how normalcy is the ultimate killjoy. I move into university in a week, and though the film is haunting and it scares me to think I could turn out the same way, I think the film has met me at the perfect time in my life to really make me feel the emotions it has on offer. The scene where Mason’s father told him you feel less as you get older is going to stick with me as I live the next stage of my life, and I am resolved to feel every emotion I can to the fullest, in the least “the moment seizes us” way I can.