Boyhood is crushingly boring. It features insipid characters, lacks a plot and looks like someone just put together your dad's bad home videos and slapped them together. Richard Linklater, who is a master of pulling off plotless films (the wonderful Before Sunrise series) completely falters on this one. Yes, we are required to like this film because it was made over a 12-year period. But so what? It might be some sort of an achievement in cinematic perseverance but one that is largely, and thankfully, unrelated to cinematic brilliance - consider Birdman (Boyhood's major competitor for the best film Oscar this year) that was made in 30 days straight. The Oscar hoopla around Boyhood is reminiscent of last year's dud - Nebraska - an another insipid film that somehow got hailed as a masterpiece. Though in front of Boyhood - it probably is. 

Everyone in the film with the possible exception of Ethan Hawke looks tired and bored. Patricia Arquette (nominated for best supporting access for some inexplicable reason) plays a tedious role with clear resentment. The biggest problem in Boyhood is the boy - a below average kid who, for no fault of his own I am sure - is just plain uninteresting.