Boyhood and Interstellar: The Moment Seizes You

Boyhood is one of the most talked about films of 2014 and for good reason. Director/writer Richard Linklater, being the incredibly talented and creative filmmaker that he is did something unheard of up to this point in cinematic history. He had a budget of $200,000 for each year over a period of 12 years to film the fictionalized life of a boy, Mason (Ellar Coltrane), from age 6 to 18. He used all of the same actors (including Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke as the separated parents and his own daughter as Mason's sister) during each stage of shooting and made most of the script up as he went along. He encouraged the actors to choose their own outfits, haircuts, etc, to most accurately represent natural change in the actors' own lives to lend more authenticity to the film; this included the actors' real life interests such as Coltrane's interest in art and photography portrayed on screen in Mason's own interests. The effect is a 2 hour and 46 minute film that chronicles what real memories of childhood and growing up are like. We tend to remember bits and pieces. Some random happenings for no particular reason, and some for obvious reasons like moving to new cities, divorce, first girlfirends/boyfriends, etc. As a result, Boyhood has no natural arch of rising action and climax. It's a simple, unadorned representation of a very normal life, but it is anything but boring to watch unfold on screen.

IFC Films

Watching Boyhood is a very personal experience. Even though the actions on screen evoke compassion and care for the characters, the sympathy derives itself from our own experiences and we turn to introspection. We remember the frustration of moving, losing friends, dealing with grown up issues at a young age via our parents' struggles, high school relationships and break ups, and the excitement and intimidation of growing up and moving away from the protection of home. As one would expect, the changing person of Mason reflects the challenges we see him face in life and we think about how we have changed and what caused those changes. This one fictionalized example of a very short but important part of life exemplifies the subjective nature of experience. It seems a silly thing to define since it seems obvious, but it is worth reiterating that our experiences are ours and ours alone. All the elements of Boyhood are common, but the people experiencing them are not. 

IFC Films

Although I think Linklater managed to keep many personal opinions out of the script, I don't think he could resist adding one, major thought at the end. The final scene of the film sees Mason in his first day at college with his new roommate and two girls from the same dorm on a hike in the beautiful, Texan countryside at Big Bend. In typical freshman fashion, the group has ingested pot brownies, a sort of ironic wink from Linklater for the dialogue to follow. Mason and one of the girls (who we suspect are immediately attracted to each other) sit and watch the sunset and in their high, philosophical state do some musing. The girl, Nicole, says "You know how everyone's always saying seize the moment? I don't know, I'm kind of thinking it's the other way around, you know, like the moment seizes us." And on this incredible, drug-induced insight the film ends, and it becomes clear. As much as we may try to rebel, especially in the formative, beginning years of our life, much of what happens to us is out of our hands. Our parents make the majority of decisions for us while growing up, and we see the result of this in Boyhood with the string of divorces, moves, and changes Mason experiences because of his parents. Otherwise, our decisions are the result of an endless string of cause and effect from interactions with others and our surroundings.

Now this may sound depressing and nihilistic like there's no point to trying to be a unique individual. It's just a fact of life. However, Boyhood presents it in such a beautiful, optimistic way. Instead of fretting over what may happen tomorrow or into the future, Boyhood encourages us to look into the past and how we have become who we are today, and that may make us want to change or appreciate who we are or a mixture of both. Either way, it's a wonderful reminder, for better or for worse, that who we are today is not who we'll be for ever. Everything is not up to us. The moment seizes us.

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But now, let's look to the stars. Literally. Let's compare this to the vastness of Christopher Nolan's epic, space-time odyssey Interstellar (how's that for a transition?). Nolan's latest venture into sci-fi represents everything that is fantastic about the possibility of film. It takes you, visually and audibly, to places you've never been before. The enormity and possibility of space portrayed on screen combined with Hans Zimmer's ethereal soundtrack is probably the best visceral experience you're going to find at the movies for a long time. The film tells how Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is recruited by NASA to lead a four-man mission through a black hole and to another galaxy to find a habitable planet for humanity since the earth is close to a state where life will be impossible. However, the reality of this black hole and the physics involved means that not only is Cooper's return to his two children doubtful, but that he will be at the mercy of the relativity of time due to gravity. For example, the few hours he spends on one planet near the black hole ends up being 24 years on earth. The result is one of the most heart breaking scenes in cinema this year as Cooper watches with tears streaming down his face video messages from earth of his children becoming adults before his eyes and his daughter, Murphy, (Jessica Chastain) turning the same age he was when he left earth. But the effects of time relativity do not stop there, the film has much more in store than that.

Paramount Pictures

When all is said and done, Interstellar does the opposite of what a lot of films do. Instead of causing the audience to turn towards introspection and ponder their own being, Insterstellar makes you look outside yourselves in awe and terror at what is outside of your control as exemplified in the boundless reaches of space. But most importantly, Nolan emphasizes the relativity of time. It is because of gravity that we experience time the way we do as a flat line. Without going too deep into the film's plot and my inability to accurately describe the physics involved, Nolan plays with the idea of controlling gravity and thus controlling time. So at one point in the film, the past, present, and future are all occurring at once. Harnessing the constant force of gravity allows Cooper to reach across all these dimensions. It's a mind boggling and ridiculous idea, but it highlights the age old struggle of our mortality and being caught in the middle of a beginning and end. This idea connects to Nolan's other major theme in the film: love and human bonding.

During the time when Cooper experiences this folding of time, Nolan introduces the idea that, like gravity, love may be a force that reaches across time and is not constricted by gravity like everything else. It is, I'll admit, a rather cheesy idea, but it works within the context of the film where Cooper and Murphy's close relationship is what drives most of Cooper's heroic feats to save humanity but also return to his family. So even though 60+ years and light years of space separate Cooper and Murphy, their connection still motivates the two of them. And thus, Interstellar does what a lot of movies do but in a different way. Nolan depicts the passing of time using different actors and makeup to "fake" aging and make us believe we're seeing that much time pass on screen. But at the same time, what is 60+ years for Murphy is only a few for Cooper, and yet the two still share a strong bond of love and dedication. In this way, Interstellar is not only an ode to adventure, discovery and the unknown, but to the veracity of the human spirit in the face of overwhelming odds the greatest of which being time.

IFC Films

Now you may see the connection that a space odyssey shares with a boy growing up in Texas. We literally see Mason grow up before our eyes and it causes us to appreciate that period of our lives and reflect on how it made us who we are today and who we might be in the future. On the other hand, we see how Cooper and Murphy are at the mercy of time and the realities of physics and the result is incredibly frustrating and sad to witness. And yet, the love the two share for each other is the constant that defies the science. In the same way, Mason realizes at the end of Boyhood that they've been shaped more by uncontrollable events than by their own efforts. So it seems that, though in very different ways, Boyhood and Interstellar celebrate the resilience and adaptability of the human spirit while acknowledging limitations. Cooper knows the limits of physics but that doesn't stop his thirst for adventure and discovery. Likewise, Mason feels the effects of his parents decisions, but in the end he is not fully like his mother or father, and each parent encourages him to find something that is uniquely his and go for it. As the entirety of Boyhood proves, life is a series of moments and those moments are now. Boyhood may focus on the past but the most important part is the ending which is literally now. Interstellar may focus on the immense struggle against time and separation, but Cooper and Murphy's love is always now.

Paramount Pictures

Both films find their grounding in the importance of present, real things but the future begs the question of how you're going to keep those things going. I could discuss the similarities and themes all day in these films and many others, but I think it is amazing how these two films can share so much in common yet exist on opposite ends of the genre spectrum. Two very different projects with very different minds behind them end up being closer than you would ever expect. Often times the people who emphasize a "seize the moment!" attitude would like to think life and its outcomes is largely within our control, but I think that will most likely lead to disappointment and despair. Nolan and Linklater recognize the big, hostile world out there, ahead of us, but they focus on what we can do to get through. Hold onto the things and people that have got us this far but also learn when to let go to what will only hold us back, When the moment seizes us, don't fight it, but don't just stand by and take it either.