"Boyhood", a Life's Masterpiece

I'm still ecstatic a couple of days after watching "Boyhood". If you fancy this humble Blog just a tiny bit and want to follow my advice for once, please GO WATCH this film as soon as you can. If art imitates life, "Boyhood" might be one of it's most perfected versions. EVER.

Of course, it had to be Richard Linklater, one of the finest, more interesting directors out there, and the man behind the superb trilogy of "Before Sunrise" / "Before Sunset" / "Before Midnight", where he captured the story of two lovers over an 18-year span, each film catching up with them at nine year intervals. Linklater had used the risky equation real time passage = screen time passage and already excelled. In "Boyhood" he condenses the story of a family through 12 years but in just one movie. We follow fictional characters interact and grow in year-to-year transitions over 165 minutes of real time. A fascinating experiment and filming experience.

But as exciting and risky the filmmaking experiment is, the movie wouldn't deserve being qualified as a masterpiece just because of it. No, if "Boyhood" deserves to be forever praised is thanks to Linklater's eye to capture time's passing by through the eyes of Mason Jr (Ellar Coltrane), a 6 years-old-kid at the beginning of the movie and a confused 18 year-old teenager entering university at the end of the film. His life serves the American director to develop an incredibly brilliant coming-of-age story. One that is unique, as we see the actors aging while their tale also evolves. The form (the physical transformations of the characters) enhances their portrayals of the roles, so the transition from childhood to young adults is offered on screen like never before.

The result is deeply affecting to the viewer, as "Boyhood" tells it all: through road trips, holidays, wasted hours at home, classes, parties, dinners, birthdays and other special days we feel the little moments of joy and learning that conform life, the fears, the doubts, the struggle against circumstances, the clashes with reality, the triumphs, the let-downs, the tenderness, the laughs, the heart-aches, the difficulties of communication, and the looks & silences that reveal more that any conversation. Even the soundtrack (with Arcade Fire, Coldplay, Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, Dylan, Wilco) fits perfectly. Along with Mason Jr. we see his older sister Samantha (played by Lorelei Linklater, the director's daughter), his relentless mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette) and more sporadically but also crucial in his evolution, his separated dad Mason (Ethan Hawke). The bounds with each of them are extraordinary brought to the screen. And in my opinion, with maybe the exception of Samantha, who seems to disappear somewhat within the film as she grows, the performances of Coltrane, Arquette and Hawke are mesmerizing. 

The viewer becomes the most welcomed guest ever, being allowed to know a family in a way that makes any other movie pale by comparison. As I'm reading some opinions saying there's not a lot going on the film I'm just going to say: go to hell. Maybe your life has been an incredible adventure, but Linklater scores a gigantic goal for just picturing this family life without adding nothing too fancy or overblown, rejecting melodrama, or only including it in tiny little pieces (no spoiling), as every human being experiences. Instead, here's everyday life, with ups and downs and mostly, in-betweens. A simple story that is so blatantly relatable for the spectator it moves you in a way very few movies can. What a lesson. What a movie. What a piece of art. Ordinary life is fragile, fleeting, and worth living. Every life is a masterpiece.

   

SCORE: 9/10

"Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever", blurred snapshots of youth

Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever: Stories- Justin Taylor

I will never lean. How many writers have been celebrated on the back covers of their debut books as the new Carver? And why I keep reading them, hoping to discover a new literary hero? That's unfair for the writer, and after reading the book, on a 99% of the cases, unfair for the reader.

Because "Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever" by Justin Taylor is not a bad collection of stories. On the contrary. Taylor's voice is quite unique: sharp, bittersweet and distant, yet skilled and polished (poetic glimpses included). Modern minimalism? New dirty realism? Labels here harm a quite cohesive and remarkable young writer. Taylor shouldn't be compared with giants, but highlighted as a quite refreshing author of his very own.

"Everything Here..." is purposely blurred. Don't expect answers of definitive endings. The fifteen stories included are just snapshots of the lives of confused young people, that would qualify as isolated losers, in which age, religion and identity are recurrent topics. Underground and counterculture might be the ground Taylor is showing us, but forget any heroics in their actions. On the contrary, a silent desolation will predominantly arise. I find the contrast between straight and frank narration and the inner turmoil of the characters quite exciting. There's sweetness but also rawness on their stories, something I believe proves Taylor's ability (and promise) to capture feelings and emotions and put the on paper. My concern has to do with the final results, with the impact of each story, for me too uneven.

That's the problem with Taylor's stories. Some, like the brief “The Jealousy of Angels”, "Tetris", or "Weekends Away" passed completely unnoticed for me. The ones with the anarchist (or just bored?) David were flat, with the lack of passion that is the "trending topic" of actual literature (that modern, frequently annoying tick) doing little favour to their very fragile characters. “Jewels Flashing in the Night of Time” might be worst of the lot, plain awful.

On the other hand, there's a bunch of stories to be remembered, like the solid "Tennessee", in which Jewishness is the background of a fierce father-and-son tale. Or in "What Was Once All Yours”, takes the subject of abortion from a male perspective, giving the emotionally charged topic a new approach. “New Life” does wonders with the redemption of a hopelessly in love kid. Or like “Whistle Through Your Teeth and Spit”, where the end of a peculiar coffee house is a phenomenal excuse to portray the bunch of regular (and outcasts) clients.

At times extremely interesting, despite the uneven impact / quality of this collection of stories, "Everything Here Is the Best Thing Ever" is a quite promising first approach to Justin Taylor's work, and also an intriguing attempt to show the miseries, as well as the hopes, of young characters striving to find their space within mankind.

SCORE: 5,75/10

"In Youth Is Pleasure", teen dreams and traumas

In Youth Is Pleasure- Denton Welch

Honestly, it's my fault. One has to be very careful when reads a critic that compares a book with "The Catcher in the Rye", or a review that qualifies Orvil Pym, the starring character, like a "Holden Caulfield written by Oscar Wilde". Because the majority of times, this sort of "great expectations" will only make the disappointment much bigger.

"In Youth Is Pleasure" is not a bad book. Far from it. But is one of these readings that satisfies only a type of readers. The ones that need an exuberant prose to enjoy a book. The ones that find pleasant to describe in detail the smell of the food, or how a dress looks like. In my opinion this is a book for critics, the sort of (some) critic that mention Proust among the comparisons... Well, they are pretty right. And that's the issue. It's not my cup of tea.

This is a book of extreme sensitivity, in which we follow a peculiar British teenager, Orvil Pym, on his summer adventures. But the adventures, pretty trivial on the surface, are more relevant in an introspective way. He is discovering himself in this trip. Probably. And I say probably because it is hard for me to say whether he achieves something or not. Denton Welch, a cult status author completely unknown in Spain, is able to evoke the feelings of melancholia, isolation, loneliness and incomprehension with brilliance, but also makes Orvil a weirdo (these dreams and surreal passages doesn't help), childish character, that makes it hard to connect with.

Being 100% sincere, this book has been, at times, a real torture to read. In my opinion, in "In Youth Is Pleasure" style is more important that content. It might be very well written, but the only exception of the final chapter on the train, it says nothing to me.

SCORE: 3,25/10