How exactly does a boy become a man? What is it that makes one different to the other? Is it a few years? Is it having a child of one’s own? Is it taking a knowing approach to death and thereby taking responsibility for one’s own life?
Boy A (2007: United Kingdom) – Dir: John Crowley (Closed Circuit, Is Anybody There?)
“Jack” (Andrew Garfield – the amazing spiderman/the social network) and his friend, Philip (Taylor Doherty) killed a girl when they were kids. Jack is not his real name. Jack is being protected because of the stigma and seriousness of the crime and what could happen if his identity were revealed. Jack spent most of his childhood in prison. Now that he’s out, and somewhat dependent, he desires independence and it isn’t clear whether he wants repentance or redemption.
Tortured by bad dreams which he cannot escape, Jack is perhaps by design, not the driving force behind the crime. However, he did the crime, the extent of his guilt is unclear. As innocent as he seems, he is culpable. The flashbacks in this film are artfully executed, as is the framing of the dialogue.
As a child in the strict English school where they are forced to wear lavish and pompous uniforms. Where it seems their environment is rigid, antique and soul-crushing, Jack as Eric meets Philip (elegantly performed by young Mr Doherty.) Philip is a firestarter, twisted firestarter. Seductive. The monster proves he is a necessary evil by coming to Eric’s rescue:
Some older skinheads who have beaten Eric up before, plan to do so again – just for something to do. Despite the boys being much older, Eric and his new friend beat the living shit out of the bullies.
Garfield is likeable as Jack - seems like a really nice guy, if you didn’t know his history. Peter Mullan is his usual excellent portrayal of a kind geezer with an education. There is a backstory of his relationship with his own son: As he tries to repair bridges. But the boy is jealous about the time his father spends working with other kids.
Eric/Jack finally manages to lose himself in the party – entitled to a little happiness. This story is a tragedy – but its little treasures make the sadness more effective.
Boy A is a story about a boy who loses his life to one mistake. In becoming a man, he must learn some of life’s more subtle lessons. Among them, that redemption is of the soul and does not extend to include other people, one’s freedom, impact on society or promise of a future.
A failed sexual encounter does not derail his hopes. He tries again and is rewarded with success, passion and one woman’s admiration. He feels that he does not deserve it.
His mate, Chris (Shaun Evans) is overwhelmed by how great a guy Jack is and extends an opportunity to discuss whatever is on his mind. But Jack can’t talk about it, so he says nothing. Chris feels deflated.
Boyhood (USA, 2014) – Dir: Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, SubUrbia)
Patricia Arquette plays the responsible mother who can’t seem to choose the right man.
"I thought there would be more!"
We watch Mason (Ellar Coltrane) grow up on screen, which is a great concept, yet it feels like the true moments, emotional answers are not given. The Ethan Hawke (as dad) obligatory Linklater intellectual rants are included in Mason’s 'getting to know his father' sequences.
It’s an experiment. As with Waking Life (2001), Linklater steps outside of his comfort zone to try something different. And then follows up with a stronger film - last time that was A Scanner Darkly (2006) having grown as a filmmaker through what he’s learned in the making.
Mason is our Truman Show-style star, yet he is emotionally vacant. Refusing to react to the outside world. We watch his waking moments struggling through reality and society, but it feels too much like a life – mundane and meaningless.
We are left to wait for something to happen. Two and a half hours and the only thing that happens is glossed over – Mason’s mother gets beaten up by a drunken new husband.
Mason’s relationships are only introduced, we don’t get to see anything real form. It’s as if everything meaningful happens offscreen.
When Mason’s mother chooses a boyfriend and advances the relationship, she aims for the opposite of Mason’s father, someone disciplined, and responsible. Who turns out to be a violent, emotionally unstable alcoholic. At first the father seems a bit like he has been painted with the loser brush – perhaps a subjective view from Mason’s perspective.
Eventually we watch the father evolve into what Mason’s mother probably wanted in the first place. A responsible, boring, castrated grownup. He’s not a great parent, absent for so long because he and their mother didn’t get along. He’s learning and he tries, he lacks commitment, but he’s a better father than the drunken, abusive bullies she keeps dating.
A key scene in this film is when Mason and his sister are rescued from the first drunken abusive father in law and they have to leave the two kids belonging to him at that nightmare house.
His mother feels almost like the centre of the plot, if it felt like this was on purpose it would make sense. A son’s world is his mother. But there isn’t really a plot, no meaning, no story.
Mason grows up and has to face the problem of making his way in the world. Life without mother. However, he is unfazed by this and life provides not the expected shock of a wakeup call. Everything works out. It’s just not realistic.
He survives quite easily and thrives. Perhaps that’s one of my problems with this film, it doesn’t explore conflict. It is one long story about an empty life where everything seems to work out in the end, and Mason gets by unchanged, unaffected by it.
Boy (New Zealand, 2010) – Dir: Taika Waititi (Eagle Vs Shark, What We Do In The Shadows)
Boy (James Rolleston) is an optimist. Two boys and their littler siblings and cousins/friends. An absent father. A dead mother – she died giving birth to Boy’s little brother, Rocky (Te Aho Eketone-Whitu.) Rocky’s surrealist fantasies (though not visually interesting) seep into the main plot. This is Boy’s story.
I’m beginning to see a connection between stories about young men and useless fathers. Boy’s dad buried money (treasure) when he was running from the cops, now he can’t find it. He thinks he’s in a gang, but there’s only three of them. One of them is white, they’re all munters (though not particularly interesting characters,) and they don’t do anything except pinch stuff, smoke dope and drink beer. They’re not violent, they’re not even really criminals.
Boy’s dad, Shogun (Taika Waititi) is an ugly drunk. He’s actually a bit of a prick, even sober.
Rocky thinks he has superpowers. Boy tries to be like his dad. His dad isn’t much of one, afraid to feel anything for his kids. Yet another irresponsible moron.
Boy dreams of Michael Jackson dance moves – that were out of date even when the film was set. It’s one thing about small kiwi towns – they are time capsules. Nothing ever changes.
Chasing girls, trying to get sex. Chasing money, trying to buy lollies. Life in relative poverty, Boy’s beach paradise.
His father means everything to him, by the end of the film he will learn that his father is not perfect. And his father just might learn that he needs his kids. Their love gives him strength when he has nothing else.
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