Home School Dad: Boyhood: A 12 in 12 Review

Yesterday, I started ny review of Boyhood like this.

Home School Dad: Boyhood: A 12 in 12 Review: Boyhood is a movie 12 years in the making.  Written and Directed by Richard Linklater, Boyhood was filmed over a 12 year period with the sa...

I was only kidding about coming back next year.  I will finish off the review today.  In preparing for this view I found this quote from film director and writer Richard Linklater on his IMDBpage ...

 "These days we can be sued for disparaging an industry. It's like it's a felony to say something bad. I think they should make it a felony to criticize a film product. Particularly my film product. It's anti-American. I'd like to see people get sued if they wrote a bad review of my movie. If you can't say something nice you shouldn't say anything at all."


I can say something nice about Mr. Linklater's movie and will. But I guess I might be subject to litigation because my main question while watching this film was "If your going to take 12 years to make a movie, why can't it be better?"


I give Linklater an A+ for effort, To film a movie over the course of a dozen years is a mammoth undertaking. The length of the project was so long that the actors could not be signed to a contract. My wife and I were entrigued by the concept and gladly spent parts of 2 nights watching it. I did not enjoy the movie as well as I hoped to for 3 reasons.


1. The movie seemed to lack continuity and cohesiveness. Sure the family moved a lot and Mason and his sister split their time between Mom and Dad. However, I did not see threads weaving through the movie as a tapestry of 12 years. True, we watched over 2 nights, but it was still very segmented. I guess that's a risk you take when you film in segments, but if this was the epic character study it was intended to be, I would have liked to see more cohesiveness.


2. The movie lacked a sense of humor. It started with one, with the comic relief of a precocious older sister. Now of course the movie dealt with difficult issues, but it is possible to deal with family dysfunction and still have humor intertwined throughout. Robert Redford's Ordinary People is a prime example.






3. For the most part, Boyhood depicts life as hopeless and circular. Now, some people may view life that way. But I don't. It's not necessarily a fault of the film or filmmaker if he feels that way. But since I don't, I can't embrace such despair. It may not be that the film is meant to be hopeless, it could just be my interpretation. At the end of the film,Mason goes off to college meets some new friends takes some drugs and go on a hike in a scenic area. Some people may view this as poignant or hopeful, I do not.



Watch again likelihood 75 to 80 %



This may seem high for a movie that I am panning, my expectations were high for this film, and the concept is novel enough to give it a second look. My wife and I may also be watching the before films soon, as the concept of following the same characters over an extended length of time continues to intrigue us.

Boyhood: A 12 in 12 Review

Boyhood is a movie 12 years in the making.  Written and Directed by Richard Linklater, Boyhood was filmed over a 12 year period with the same actors and actress telling a slice of life coming of age story of Mason from K-12. Each year he revisited the characters and moved along the plot.

Linklater is no stranger to revisiting characters.  As he  made 3 films with Boyhood star Ethan Hawke Before Sunrise 1995, Before Sunset 2004,  and Before Midnight 2013 revisiting the same couple at 9-year intervals.

I am about 1/12th of the way done with my review.  I will be back this time next year with my next installment.

Monday Morning Memories: Remembering Millard

I like to look at my blog stats for old posts that are recirculating.  This post I wrote shortly after the passing of Millard Posthuma in 2009 frequently appears on my top 10 list.  I believe people Google Millard and this post pops up.

Since I wrote this post, Millard's wife Trudy has joined Millard in heaven.  The Posthumas posthumous influence on my life remains strong.  Here is what I said then ...

Home School Dad: Remembering Millard: Millard Posthuma 1916 -2009 Heaven centered living provides own eulogy. I have recently discovered that there is a new blog c...

Dragon practice

Hi, my name is Dave. But if you read this blog, you knew that. I am not typing this post. I am dictating it to Dragon software. I purchased the software for my sons spiderdroid.  I am just trying it out, to see if it works.  I am a pretty slow typist, and sometimes it is easier for me to dictate my posts to my wife. She is a fabulous typist.  I think sometimes I will use the software to type my blogs. When I  said typist a moment ago, it wrote down type s. When I said it in context,it got it right.

I hope this will help my son  with his writing.  This is working much better than the Dragon app I had with my ipod touch. I lost my iPod touch hospital years ago, that's a different story. Do any of you use Dragon software? How is it working for you?

Well, this was just a practice. I will be reviewing boyhood very soon.  Please check out my daughter's blog Wolfina's Secrets and  her most recent  post, my Christmas vacation.

My name is Dave Roller, and I approve this message!

New Year? 12 New to me movies.

Every year I set a goal to watch 12 movies I have not seen before.  I like movies and often watch the same ones over and over.  So I try to watch movies from time to time that I have not seen.  As many of you know there are 12 months in a year.  I decided to maybe try and add a new movie to watch each month for a year.  I may have accomplished this goal in the past, but I have always failed to chronicle it.  So, this year, I am going to write a post each month about the "new" movie I have seen.

Let me explain the parameters I have placed upon myself.  When I say new movies, I do not mean 12 2015 movies at the theater.  I mean 12 movies no matter how old or young they are.  Well not exactly because since I believe myself to be fairly well rounded, I want to see movies that I have not seen before from differing eras.

Here is how I am doing it: Since I am turning 51 this year, I have lived in all or parts of 52 calendar years.  52 divided by 4 is 13. I am dividing it only by 4 because, I am a big believer in watching movies older than me.  I have divided  the eras in 6 13 year periods, 4 spanning my life time and 2 predating my life time.  I will attempt to watch 2 movies from each era, and report back here each month with a review

The Eras are
2003 through 2015
1990 through 2002
1977 through 1989
1964 through 1976
1951 through 1963
Anything prior to 1950 (The main era would be 1938 to 1950, but this gives me  the freedom to watch movies even older than that)

Over the weekend I watched  a movie called Boyhood.  It came out in 2014 and will be my January selection.  The review should come out some time this week. I am thinking of the Big Broadcast (1932) for the February installment.

Hall of Fame

Branch Rickey

Jackie Robinson

I love baseball.   Last year Spider Droid and I went to Cooperstown to visit Baseball's Hall of Fame.

I wanted to go to see Frank Thomas be inducted.

On way there we stopped at Niagara Falls

Here we are at the entrance.

We also worked toward a family goal of bowling in every state.

I thought of that trip today since the HOF class of 2015 was announced.  Earlier this week I posted my annual list of who I would vote for at my sports blog

Congratulations to Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio on their election.