Paramount Home Media Distribution recently announced that it will be sending Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, one of the most extraordinary movies to emerge this year (if not indeed this century) to Blu-Ray and DVD on January 6th, 2015. The film will be available on Digital HD a full four weeks early, on December 9th.
Shot by Linklater over the course of 12 years, Boyhood follows a child named Mason (Ellar Coltrane) from age 5 to age 18, as he experiences the ups and downs of growing up, from birthdays and road trips through his first love and graduating from high school. Ethan Hawke, Patricia Arquette and Lorelei Linklater co-star alongside Coltrane.
Boyhood, to put it simply, is one of the most wonderfully moving motion pictures to come along in quite some time and it’s an absolute must-own for any cinephile, aspiring or established.
Looking at the specs, the Blu-Ray Combo pack for Boyhood is presented in 1080p high definition with English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description with English, English SDH and Spanish subtitles. The combo pack includes a DVD and access to a Digital HD copy of the film, as well as the following special features:
- The 12 Year Project
- Q&A with Richard Linklater and the Cast
No special features are included on the DVD version, which makes the Blu-Ray all the more desirable. Though the special features may seem slim on paper, such a beautifully formed film was surely the product of a director with a clear, ambitious and thoughtful vision, so hopefully the two that are included extras will allow us to get some insight into Linklater’s process.
Tell us, will you be picking up Boyhood when it arrives next year?
Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay’s “Yellow” to Arcade Fire’s “Deep Blue”. Boyhood is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting. It’s impossible not to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journey.