Boyhood

Having only seen the very beginning and very end of this film it was hard to grasp the gradual 12 year development of this movie. From the little parts that I did see, I can say that I liked the film and I think that it is a very cool concept to follow someone from adolescence to maturity. It's very risky to take a normal kid with no acting background and put him into a project like this because there is no way of knowing how he will turn out in 12 years. Some argue that they don't like how Mason is at the end but I think it makes the story more real. There is no huge plot to the movie, it just follows a boy as he grows up and his relationship with his family, just like life there are milestones but not a huge climax. No one knows what the future holds for them and they may like it or they may not but having the creators of this project not know either made it that more real.

Again I did miss a big portion of the movie but I did get to see Mason grow up a little in the beginning and graduate and go off the college at the end. I noticed that the transitions between time were very subtle and if you didn't pay attention you could almost miss them. There wasn't a pause in-between scenes that told you what grade Mason was in and how much time had passed, the editing was very smooth and it just moved from scene to scene. It was clear that Mason was getting older but there weren't extended shots on him to show this, it was very subtle and noticeable by what was going on in his life at that time. You don't notice how fast you are growing up as it is happening to you which is how they made the editing feel for this film.

One scene where I thought this editing worked well was transitioning from the beginning when Mason comes home from school and spends the evening with his sister and his mom to the next scene  when he wakes up and the two sibling are clearly older but it seems like it's just the next day. Another scene is when they get in the car and move to Texas so that the mom can get an education and then we see the kids reunite with their dad when they are in Texas but the two have grown up since they left home. I thought these transitions worked well because they weren't focused on and made a big deal but they were noticeable enough to get the point across that time was going by. One scene that I thought didn't work very well was at the very end after Mason had graduated from high school and was moving into college. I felt like Mason had changed a lot physically and mentally. There is only about a two and half month gap between the high school and college and although it is very possible that this happened, it is more likely that Mason would stay the same and then change more in college.

Some films take a different approach when expressing the passing of time by showing the aging of an object or a clock going around very fast or montages. For example, in a Twilight movie, the camera moves around Bella as they show the seasons changing through the window.

I thought this was a really interesting movie and I am looking forward to sitting down and watching the film in it's entirety. I liked the reality of the movie and I feel like everyone can relate to a character in this movie because it focuses so much on the things that everyone has to go through.

MYST POST #4: Almost Famous

Almost Famous will always be one of my favorite movies ever made. It has this sort of magic to it that leaves you feeling like you went on that same journey with William and Penny Lane. Maybe it’s my love of music or the strange connection I feel to the characters, but I love this movie more each time I see it. This film stars many well known actors such as Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Jimmy Fallon, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Kate Hudson who made her big break in this movie. Almost Famous received amazing reviews getting an 88% from Rotten Tomatoes and 90 on Metacritic, as well as a favorable review from Rolling Stone.

The film was made in 2000, but takes place in 1973 following William Miller, an uncool 15 year old kid from San Diego as he tries to find how to combine his two passions: music and writing. His love for rock music gives him an opportunity to do a piece for Rolling Stone magazine on the midlevel band Stillwater. He joins them on their tour and along the way meets people and experiences things that he had never imagined possible before.

One scene that stood out to me was the first performance from Stillwater on their tour. Before they start playing, the camera shows a long shot of the completely full stadium from the stage and as the band is announced, the lights go down and the audience goes insane. In that same shot you can see the mood of the crowd change within seconds, showing the power that the band has without anyone having to actually verbally say anything about it. Then we see the band come on stage and the camera follows behind them as they walk out, in the same place William would be walking. Then we see the guitarist tell William to stand on the edge of the stage and we see the rest of their performance from that angle and different angles from the stage. This gives us the feeling that we are having the same experience as them, not just as an audience member. I think this style really works here because most people watching this film have never experienced a concert backstage like that before, which really emphasizes the feelings that William has as he experiences something so powerful for the first time.

I really loved this movie and I think that it is a classic film that almost anyone will enjoy. I really liked Kate Hudson in this movie and I thought she did a great job. In my opinion, I think it’s her best work from the limited movies I have seen her in, but she definitely made a big splash in this one. The director Cameron Crowe, is very well known in Hollywood and also wrote the movie along with other very well known movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything…, and Jerry Maguire. I have seen those and though I wouldn’t say I liked them as much as I did this movie, I would definitely give them all a thumbs up and this movie five stars.