Coming of Age

A wonderful way to spend nearly three hours of a summer day: "Boyhood." The SJG and the youngest son sat in style in our pricey multiplex seats and took an amazing 12-year journey. We laughed and emoted like crazy.  One of us, the more maternally inclined, shed a tear or two, especially at the end, when the boy becomes a man without benefit of a Bar Mitzvah.  "Why?" I asked the rapper known as Scott D. "Not one Hebrew lesson.  Not one trip to the bima." "Ma, I think you missed the whole point of the movie," he said. "How dare you, my son. How. Dare. You."  "Didn't you see the scene where the grandmother gives Mason a bible?" "What's your point?" "And then the grandfather gives him a rifle." "You're right, these are not Jewish people.  Still, it was a great movie." "I think it's the best movie I've ever seen." "And aren't you glad you saw it with me, your mother, who shlepped you, lovingly, from boyhood to manhood and forced you to get Bar Mitzvahed?" "You're the mama." "That's right,  I am. Now remind me where I parked the car."

Ellar Coltrane, star of "Boyhood"