23 August

Review: “Boyhood.” Coming Of Age

by Jon Katz
Growing Up
Growing Up

“Boyhood,” the new film from Richard Linklater, is being hailed both as a masterpiece and an American classic. That kind of praise always makes me a bit nervous. It is deserved here. This nearly perfect coming-of-age movie rocked me for sure. It is one of the most ambitious, touching and extraordinary movies I have ever seen.

The movie took more than a decade to film, the actors – Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette,  Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater – grow up together  until Coltrane – Mason in the movie – goes off to college. I suppose the real message of the movie is that growing up is difficult, and often just stinks. The other message is that most of us survive it.

It is a sad commentary on American life that the movie can only be seen in a handful of independent theaters, the big chains don’t show two hour and 45 minute movies without aliens or zombies or superheroes.

In “Boyhood,” nothing much happens excepts a sensitive and troubled young man grows up, he and his family live through divorces, moves, abusive men, conflicts and the daily struggles of life together. The movie is funny and beautiful and very deeply felt, anyone who has ever grown up – that would be all of us – will resonate deeply with Mason’s march towards life. Arquette is wonderful at his mother, a tiger who always protects her young even as she leads them through one painful struggle after another.

Hawke is especially brilliant as Mason’s father, a restless and immature man who learns how to grow up, be a real man and a loving father  before our eyes. He wins back his son’s strained trust and shows us what having a loving father really means.

It was an especially brilliant stroke to follow all of these actors for nearly 12 years, we see all of them grow up and age before our eyes. It is rare to see a movie so simple yet powerful. I don’t think masterpiece is too strong a word. Linklater is a brave filmmaker – he foregoes all of the flash and boom of modern film marketing to create a movie that draws us deeply to its compassionate, human and very empathetic characters.

I don’t believe I know a single human being who did not find growing up difficult, often painful and confusing. For much of the movie, the artistic Mason is hectored and lectured by adults telling him to grow up, be mature and do his homework on time. This is the message of America right now – do what they tell you so that you can make enough money to be able to afford what they tell you you  need. Any other path is reckless and irresponsible. Keep your day job.

Like most kids growing up, Mason doesn’t care much for adults and doesn’t listen to them. He lives in his own world, on his hown path. Over time, he grows closer to his father, who ran away from the family and moved to Alaska when Mason was very young, but who has returned to try to be closer to his kids and figure out how to live them. The rebuilding of this father-and-son relationship is an astonishingly beautiful and satisfying element of the movie.

If there was any flaw in this wonderful movie for me, it is a common one. Hollywood – book publishing too – can no longer imagine a human being over the age of 40 who is not resigned, beaten by the system of life, or defeated by it. If the movie industry finds growing up difficult, they find growing older a horror without redemption.

I saw one review that called “Boyhood” one of the most extraordinary films in decades – I think it is true. It is also restrained and disciplined and unassuming. Any mother, father or child will be profoundly touched by it.  I recommend it very highly.

23 August

Reflections On A County Fair: Maria And The Goat

by Jon Katz
Reflections On The County Fair
Reflections On The County Fair

Maria headed straight for the animal barns and made friends with a goat, the two communed and cuddled for a bit.

This was the first Washington County Fair I’ve been to in a couple of years, it was good to be back. The Washington County Fair is one of the oldest agricultural fairs in the country, and one of the most popular. It is rich in atmosphere and tradition. The things I love about it are seeing the 4-H kids and their families living in trailers alongside their animals for a week while waiting to show them. I love the roast chicken dinner offered by the Argyle Fire Department as a fund-raiser. I love seeing the kids brush their cows and tuck them in.

It is a place of sensations – smells, sounds, lights, sounds, a feast of sensations, really, thick in atmosphere and feeling.

I love seeing the chicken, swine and poultry exhibits. Families work hard all year to get ribbons at the fair. It is wonderful to see all of the cakes and pies offered to the judges in the domestic arts barn. The farm family trailers line the show booths, hundreds of them gathered each year to show their animals, meet and share their dwindling community, deemed inefficient in the global community by the economists and Washington politicians.

I love seeing people proudly parade their cows, and there is the richest sense of family everywhere. This is, in a sense, the lost America, when the country was devoted in great measure to farming, animals and the land. That world is vanishing, and it is a gift to be able to see it at the county fair here.

I love taking photos at the carnival, although it is a skanky carnival, from the rides to the operators. It is noisy and overwhelming, perfect for kids.

There are also things I do not like about the fair. They sell all kinds of things that have nothing to do with life here – hot tubs,  leather studded jackets, skimobiles.

A lot of people came up to me at the fair to say hello. This is sometimes hard for me, I have met so many people I can’t always remember them or recognize them and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I saw one or two people from my other life, people I did not care to see. I saw many I was very happy to see.

There are three or four places to get good food – mostly made by non-profit organizations like the Lion’s Club or volunteer fire and rescue squads, but the fair is fairly overrun with some of the worst and least healthy and appetizing food anywhere – fried oreos, fried and sugared dough, cheese corn dogs, greasy pizza. The junk food – sold in row after row of carts – is just sleazy. Perhaps I’m sensitive to this issue this year, a few weeks out of open heart surgery, but it just seems wrong to me for this junk to be such a prominent part of a county fair in this beautiful, still agricultural place.

it is painful to see so many morbidly obese people walking down the runways, so many of them very young children eating huge baskets of cheese-covered french fries.

This is especially ironic in a county where there are now so many creative young organic farmers, and county farmers who produce some of the most beautiful and healthy food anywhere – blueberries, corn, spinach, zucchini, squash, melons. None of it is available at the county fair. I wish they would give some ribbons for the farmer’s good work, not just for the farmers with cows. One would think they could squeeze in one or two carts offering the very beautiful products of some of the most interesting farmers in the world, organic and traditional.

Perhaps the appeal of the fair is that it doesn’t really change much. Walking down the big runways, you might not know there is an Internet, you will not hear the self-serving posturing of politicians, the bad news of the world is not rained down up you, the timeless connection between the land, the people, and the animals is evident everywhere, even among the cheesy fries and cotton candy. It is a celebration of the old ways, and of the a time when the young drew upon working animals to show them how to form community and take responsibility.

No one at the Washington County Fair would believe you were serious if you told them it was exploitive slavery for working animals to work. There are cows, mules, draft horses, goats, sheep, pigs and chickens, all working with and for people as they have all through time.

What a pleasure it is to walk among people who understand that.

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