Ask McFartnuggets: “Why Would Anyone Watch That ‘Boyhood’ Movie?

Dear McFartnuggets: 

Everyone’s talking about this movie “Boyhood” where the director Richard Linklater filmed a boy over the course of 12 years to show the story of a kid growing up. Why is that interesting to anyone? I have nephews I could give a rat’s ass about and those are real people going through real problems. Why would I pay $10 or more to watch some crappy movie about a fake kid when I could just pick a kid at random in my neighborhood and watch them grow up over the years for real? Everyone puts their entire life on social media anyway so it’s not difficult to follow the progress of people even kids. What’s so special about watching a boy grow up? They’re everywhere. How is watching a movie about a fake boy any less creepy than the real deal? -- Madison from Roanoke, Virginia

Dear Madison:

The story of a boy growing up is very boring and pointless, but what they did with “Boyhood” was unprecedented from a filmmaking standpoint. No one has ever wasted that much of their time to make a movie before so it’s pretty noteworthy. It’s basically the cinematic version of one of those “one photo every day for a whole year” videos you see on YouTube. That said, while it does feel silly to watch a movie about a fake boy that you don’t know growing up, it’s probably a thousand times more awkward to watch a real boy growing up, not to mention the potential restraining orders that might be brought against you by the family. The nice thing about “Boyhood” is it takes 12 years and compresses it into a couple of hours. To actually watch a child grow up or even make one yourself to watch it grow up will take more than 12 years and you’ll feel every single day of it if you’re lucky and that just sucks.

If you try to film your own version of "Boyhood" get ready for plenty of these.

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