BOY (4/20 Edition)

Good morning people!! It is Wednesday morning and you know what that means, we are back from a Tuesday night of popcorn-eating, slack-posting, and movie-watching! This past Tuesday night we had the pleasure of watching the 2010 dramedy (mix of comedy and drama) Boy, a New-Zealand film that had me rolling with laughter but biting my blanket with anticipation with what was to come next considering how dramatic this movie really got. This movie begins with the protagonist, Boy discussing this larger-then-life figure who can do all of these incredible things and who does all of these incredible things. I found it very interesting that when Boy was describing his father’s insane amount of feats he can do, it was not that he “can or could do” these feats, it was that he does all of these things. I thought this unrealistic image of his father that Boy portrayed was helpful in his time to help him process that his father had actually just abandoned Boy and the rest of his family. Boy, even at only 11 years old, has been prompted to a huge role inside of the home, he is now having to take the role that Shogun, his father, had once occupied. You see this play out in such ways as when Boy is talking to his father during the “get together” as Shogun calls it, and his sister who had previously left the party earlier due to her claiming it was lame. Boy’s sister is demanding dinner and wants to know what is for dinner, because it is quite apparent to me that Boy is usually responsible, even at 11 years old, for the daily cooking of all of their meals. We see throughout the film how time helped shape and form Boy’s opinion of his father and his personal identity was never the same again. His confidence at first became intensely shattered where he claimed, “I have no potential!” Which, by the way, me and all of my fellow classmates/bloggers think you have an immense amount of potential, Boy! I believe before he truly met and got to know his father, Boy thought his father was bigger-than-life and this incredible character who would be taking care of Boy and his family whenever he was to return. Well, Boy got his wish and his father does return, but is not nearly the man Boy has envisioned in his head. Shogun is simply an abusive, alcoholic, pothead (shoutout 4/20), who only cares about himself and no one else. I think Boy thought that life and purpose was driven from his father and the potential that I believe he had concerning his father. He thought his father could do all of these great things and contained all of this great potential when in fact, it was all a lie. His father was broke as a joke and if anything, would try to take money from the kids (because he is a scumbag) before he ever earned an honest dollar. Boy learns overtime though to stand up for himself and finds a sense of confidence in himself after standing up for himself to his father at the end of the movie in the family barn where the get-together was previously held earlier in the movie. His slaps his father multiple times as a sign in my opinion, that the times were changing. A sign of the times, you might add – shout out to Harry Styles! It appeared to me that the father was well aware that he could not bully his son anymore, that the only man inside of that household was Boy, not Shogun. Boy’s character development from the beginning of the movie towards the middle and then throughout the end was ever-changing but ultimately, in my opinion, ended in a good place. He will forever be scarred from the emotional trauma his father made him endure, but I believe he will be a better man then his father ever was due to this trauma. He will come back stronger. This was our last movie review for this semester, and since michaelreviewsmovies is graduating May 1 at noon, it will be the last blog for this class and I just wanted to say I have enjoyed spending my Tuesday nights watching movies and learning at the same time. I never thought a religion class based around movies would actually turn out to be my favorite class from this semester. I hope for all of the fans of michaelreviewsmovies that you stay tuned into our next project which will be revealed later this month! This movie receives a 7.8/10 on the michaelreviewsmovies scale.