The coming-of-age movie George Miller calls “very powerful”
It’s undoubted that Australian cinema icon George Miller possesses a versatility that has left him in the highest of consideration across the world. Whether he’s carving out brutal dystopian visions in the Mad Max films or weaving a heartwarming tale in Babe or Happy Feet, Miller has always been at the top of his game.
Animated masterpieces that attract audiences of all ages or post-apocalyptic madness, it’s all in a day’s work for Miller. He’s proven time and time again that he is capable of nuance storytelling regardless of genre or style, a testament to his sheer prowess as a filmmaker.
Having given such a varying catalogue of movies in terms of genre and style throughout his career, Miller is well placed to consider the greatest works from across cinema’s rich history. When it comes to the widely beloved realm of coming-of-age movies, they don’t get better for him than Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.
“The circumstance of making the film and the truth of that film that you saw and the feelings it gave, having become a parent and gone through that experience myself, had deep resonances to me on something where there was no fantasy in the film,” Miller once told Rotten Tomatoes in a feature discussing his favourite movies of all time.
Boyhood was released in 2014, directed by Linklater and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater and Ethan Hawke. A truly groundbreaking cinematic achievement, Coltrane plays Mason Evans Jr., a young boy whom the film follows over the course of 12 years, marking his journey into adulthood.
There’s a deep commitment to authenticity with Linklater opting to film his actors for a dozen years. It allows his audience to witness Mason’s physical, emotional and intellectual growth in real-time, showcasing an event rarely seen in the cinematic medium.
“There was no flamboyance or extravagance,” Miller added of his impression of Linklater’s film. “But its resonances were very powerful.” It’s true; there is an impressive intimacy to Boyhood that enables audiences to reflect their own feelings about growing up onto Mason and thereby better understand him and their selves.
Boyhood is a beautiful mediation of the inevitable passage of time and the nostalgic nature of growing up. Miller himself has never shied away from looking at life’s more tender moments in some of his easier-going works, so it’s easy to see why he finds such admiration for Linklater in this instance.
Check out the trailer for Boyhood below.
