Movie Review: Boyhood

Boyhood Trailer

Last night, John and I watched the film, Boyhood.

It is the story of a boy (duh) and follows him through his formative years, from about 3rd grade to going off to college.

What makes this film unique is that it was filmed, a little at a time, over the course of those years, using the same actors throughout.  

It had lots of bad language and things that make it inappropriate for kids and people who can't hear a story if it is wrapped in bad language.

(I have a similar problem; I can't hear a story if it is wrapped in bad grammar.)

It was, I'm afraid, an all too familiar story in America: single mom, there/not there dad, drunken step-dads, "poor choices," bad advice, drugs, pre-marital sex, heart-breaking consequences.

On the other hand, nothing ever seems that bad.  Many situations that could have been tragic were merely sad bumps in the road of life and everyone moves on, moves forward, makes the best of things as they come.

Toward the end of the movie, the main character has just graduated from high school and he asks his dad - who has turned into one of the most steady, positive influences in his life - what it all means.  If we're just going from one life event to the next and if by the time we're 40 we have no more idea of what it all means than when we were 18, what good is it all?  

A good question.

His dad's answer?  I can't remember exactly what he says, but it's basically, "D***ed if I know."

And yet, impossibly, the movie ends on a positive note, the boy's life seemingly full of possibility.

And the secular world claims that Christianity is based on faulty reasoning and wishful thinking!

The movie is well-done, the acting convincing, the characters engaging.  I'm sure it deserves any awards it receives.

But it is flawed in the same way everything is flawed apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ.  

If we are only working to be as comfortable as possible before we die, then we should all just quit right now.  

If, however, we are working for the glory of Someone bigger than ourselves, Someone who created us and planned for us, Someone who has called us, Someone who equips us to do what we are called to do, Someone who has gone before us, Someone who will call us to our true home when this life is done, only then does anything make sense,