I need to say something about the film Boyhood, before it does, or more likely does not (given the current prognosticators), win the Oscar for Best Picture on Sunday. I didn’t see it in the theater, but watched the DVD when it came out in January, and have watched it at least three times through, and various pieces more times than that.
It’s a film that has affected me in a way no other film has done, ever, except (in an extremely different sense) 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Because it strikes me at a very particular stage of my life, a stage when one thinks back to consider what might have been, the things that didn’t seem the least plausible, given my circumstances and age, but which recently has seemed possible after all. Though not practical, given that we’ve cashed out various reserves to finance our move to the Bay Area.
So Boyhood is for me a vicarious experience about raising a son, which I wish I could have done. As the years grow old, the regrets grow stronger.
