I think every character can be viewed through the thematic lens of responsibility. Just a few examples I noticed: **Mason's introduction sequence: MOM Well... she said that you weren't turning in your homework assignments. And I told her, "I know he does them, 'cause I check them every night." She said she found a big chunk of them crumpled up at the bottom of your backpack. MASON She didn't ask for 'em. MOM Well, baby, she doesn't have to. You're supposed to turn them in. And she said you're still staring out the window all day. ** Bill's overly strict chores ** Ernesto going to night school and having a better life for it. ** Dad's arc of irresponsible absentee father to a responsible one ** p. 167 (after Mason was dumped by Sheena) DAD Here's the truth. Women are never satisfied. Ok? They're always looking to potentially trade up and that's, I'm sorry to say, what I think has happened to you my fine feathered friend. MASON What does that even mean? DAD It means don't hand over the controls to your self-esteem to Sheila. MASON Sheena. DAD Alright. It means you are responsible for you, not your girlfriend, not your mom, not me. You. And if you truly take care of you, you will be amazed at how much girls like Sheena start lining up at your front door. ** a clever use of foreshadowing Bill's drinking -- Mom cuts Mason off from getting another pop at dinner.

jem, I really think you are onto something here re responsibility as a theme in Boyhood. Other examples off the top of my head: * Early on when Olivia refuses to go out with Ted - no babysitter - because in effect, she has a responsibility to her kids (although I would argue the subtext here is she KNOWS she's in a bad relationship with Ted and is in part using the kids as her excuse to stop seeing Ted). * Re Dad, this is a recurring theme, him showing up to do his fatherly duty. Yes, it's genuine, and yes, he loves his kids, but there's also a whiff of him trying to make up for being irresponsible by running off to Alaska and wherever. * Bill Welbrock SEEMS responsible, but turns out to be the WORST kind of irresponsible. * Olivia extracting her children from the abusive alcoholic Bill: An act of parental responsibility. * Olivia yelling at Samantha who was responsible for picking up Mason after school, but didn't. * Jim is seemingly responsible -- Iraq war vet -- but turns out to a bad fit for the family. * It explains why Dad hooks up with Annie and buys into the whole religion thing, accepting his responsibility as an adult. * At Mason's graduation, Dad congratulates and thanks Olivia for how well she's done raising Mason, how she accepted the responsibility of being a parent. If you add all that up, that is a lot of responsibility. Which makes the final scene that much more redolent. It's four college kids, all on mushrooms, out in wilds of west Texas being supremely irresponsible. So you have living in the moment v. responsibility. Dynamic tension that pulses throughout the entire story. Good analytical eye, jem!

If there is a movie that speaks to what Joseph Campbell calls the central theme of a Hero's Journey -- Transformation -- it's this one. And what's so intriguing is the breadth of meaning that dynamic takes on in this story. Many people have focused their attention almost solely on the unique narrative device made by Linklater -- shooting the movie over a period of 12 years. And it is, no doubt, a remarkable creative inspiration. Most movies which take place over a lengthy time-span, when we see the actors age, even as much as we enter into the story universe, we know at a pragmatic level, their physical appearance reflects the work of hair and make-up artists. In Boyhood, not so. The actors actually physically TRANSFORM over time, especially Mason and his sister Samantha, naturally so as they grow from childhood into young adults. So there is THAT level of transformation. But then, look at what happens to each of the main characters in their own PERSONAL lives: * Olivia goes from a underemployed single mother, through a series of bad marriages, gets a graduate degree, becomes a teacher, and even something of a mentor (those 2 scenes with the guy who replaces the plumbing line outside the house who she advises to go to college, then meets years later in the restaurant where he thanks her for her wisdom). * Dad goes from freewheeling vagabond to a minivan driving, moustache-wearing, new father, marrying into a religious family, working as a businessman guy. * Samantha goes from this little girl into a college student. * And Mason. The thing that grabs me the most on an emotional level is how at each stage of his growth over 12 years, he could easily have slid into negativism and self-destructive behavior. Child of divorce, abusive stepfather, Olivia's next husband who doesn't understand Mason at all, moving around so much, the family often on the edge of financial distress, lack of interest in a typical educational path toward a 'safe' career, along with the usual opportunities for teenagers (drugs, casual sex). But due to an involved and caring mother who, even if she made shitty choices in terms of her own love life, loved her children and advocated for them; a father whose lifestyle may have been all over the place, but again, a man who showed love for his children, albeit often in a self-aggrandized way, and whose alternate way of carving out a living presented Mason with an idea that he did NOT have to work as a mindless gnome, at least as a young man. Then there is the photography. With all the negative energy swirling in, around and through Mason's life, he discovered what would appear to be his bliss, an avenue for his creative expression. The camera allowed him to show the world how he SAW the world. It validated who he WAS and I imagine gave him, if not hope relative to a career, a sense of excitement in the here and now, something he ENJOYED doing. And so, Mason's metamorphosis is fundamentally a positive one. Which is why that final scene with he and his three college friends, sitting out in Nature, a place of raw beauty, in a way it feels like he beat the odds. He has become a Creator... not a Hater. A final thought re transformation in the story. I noted the breadth of this dynamic in Boyhood. If you compare the movie to Forrest Gump, which I have elsewhere on the blog, whereas Forrest is a change agent and it is the world around him that goes through one sea change (culturally) after another, Transformation with a capital T, in Boyhood the world pretty much stays the same. It's the PEOPLE who change [of all the characters from FG who might best fit into Boyhood, I would argue it would be Jenny, but I'll save that thought for another blog post]. And whereas in FG, the occurrences that cause change are these BIG EVENTS -- Vietnam War, assassinations, Watergate, peace march on Washington, etc -- in Boyhood, change happens through a long thread of moments. Some of them bigger than others [e.g., Olivia assaulted by her drunk husband], but mostly seemingly mundane slices of life. And that's the point I want to make: How do we, as human beings, make sense of our lives? I think on one level, we do it in remembering and stitching together moments. That's what Boyhood does so beautifully. And that's why the choice to shoot the movie over 12 years was such a stroke of genius, because we, as viewers know these moments are playing out in the present tense in a unique way. Not makeup artists. Not hair stylists. The aging, the growth, the physical transformation is real. And it underscores and intertwines with the psychological metamorphosis to create a powerful narrative even if the events are merely a myriad of little moments. We may never see another movie like Boyhood. Who the hell else would tempt fate like that for 12 years?!?! It's a crazy scheme! Fortunately the movie gods, who routinely crash and burn productions, smiled down on this one, enabling us to add this cinematic gift to the collection of movie greats.

anyone else feel like mason ends up an amalgam of both mom and dad at the end? mason ends up pursuing higher education in the arts (dad the musician, mother the educator/student) and doing it early enough in life to avoid the traps both his parents succumbed to. in a sense he's being responsible in a way his parents weren't until quite late in their lives, after significant sacrifices had been made (dad not seeing/raising his kids, mom not having any sort of life/career outside of the family).