Happy new year, and OT: movie "Boyhood"
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Join Date: Apr 2013
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Happy new year, and OT: movie "Boyhood"
I hope everyone is having a serene New Year. (Me - working on it. Problems with my 20 yo daughter.)
Last night I had a quiet evening and watched the Richard Linklater film, Boyhood. All I can say, as the parent of a serious-minded 17-year-old son, is WOW. I've been thinking about this film all day.
Did anyone else see this yet? Anyone else's gut clench immediately when Patricia Arquette's new husband ordered "another bottle of wine" at the end of the restaurant meal?
Last night I had a quiet evening and watched the Richard Linklater film, Boyhood. All I can say, as the parent of a serious-minded 17-year-old son, is WOW. I've been thinking about this film all day.
Did anyone else see this yet? Anyone else's gut clench immediately when Patricia Arquette's new husband ordered "another bottle of wine" at the end of the restaurant meal?
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Join Date: Oct 2013
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"Gut clench," yep. RAH, older son (a university-bound 18-year-old at the time) and I saw the excellent "Boyhood" together here in Houston last summer, enjoying so many familiar places and people on the screen in addition to the astonishing film itself. RAH had been sober for nine months but those scenes with the alcoholic husband #2 filled me with dread, and at one of the violent ones I reactively cringed away from RAH sitting next to me. He was never physically or verbally abusive when he was drunk, but the emotional and psychological damage his alcoholism did to our family clearly left me with some PTSD. The force of my own reaction surprised me.
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Join Date: Oct 2014
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I'm late in catching up, but I saw "Boyhood" over the weekend with my AH, and I agree that it was an excellent, sobering (pun intended) portrayal of an alcoholic. My husband noticed it too and said something like, well that movie didn't make drinking look very fun, did it? All of the portrayals seemed so authentic and heart-wrenching; perhaps it should be recommended viewing for people who struggle with alcohol as well as those who love them.
I couldn't help but compare the Linklater film to the series we used to watch, "Mad Men," in which even overt alcoholism was (mostly) treated as a joke. Plus it was hard to watch without wanting to pour oneself a martini. That show made drinks, and all that clinking ice, look so good; "Boyhood" reveals alcohol (and other drugs) as crutches that end up harming the user and his loved ones. "Gut clench," indeed.
I couldn't help but compare the Linklater film to the series we used to watch, "Mad Men," in which even overt alcoholism was (mostly) treated as a joke. Plus it was hard to watch without wanting to pour oneself a martini. That show made drinks, and all that clinking ice, look so good; "Boyhood" reveals alcohol (and other drugs) as crutches that end up harming the user and his loved ones. "Gut clench," indeed.
sauerkraut, Mad Men eventually shows how the boozing catches up with the guys on the show. It's definitely less appealing in later seasons, an AA member is part of the team, and several of the guys hit bottom.
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Join Date: Oct 2014
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Thanks, Florence, for the update on "Mad Men." Guess I should watch the later seasons. When Don went back to his old philandering ways, I lost interest. Glad to know that some of the boozing characters get dealt reality checks.
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