In 1998, a movie was released about Jim Carrey’s character Truman Burbank was the star of a television show following the life of boy adopted by a TV company and you get to watch him grow up inside this tv world that he is convinced is real life. 

In May 2002 Director Richard Linklater had started shooting a film trying to capture just the simple essence of a boys childhood. Not a documentary and not a very dramatic overdone story, but just a life of boy growing up from age 6 to age 18. The way he went about this was to shoot a short film every year for 12 years and you really got to see each character grow. It wasn’t makeup, it wasn’t CGI, It was simply genius.

The movie opens with the blue sky panning down to see little Mason laying in the grass waiting to be picked up from school. He has his older sister and his single mother and a father who is still in his life. The movie continues as you see how he just simply grows up. This movie just will blow your mind in a single cut scene. At any moment in the movie it will just cut a year later and hes’ a year older in a new grade and he looks a year older and in just a few minutes you start catching them talking about what had gone on in that year, and you feel caught up in no time.

This movie was unlike anything in Cinema. It almost didn’t feel like a movie. When you were 20 minutes into this movie you felt like this family was real, you felt like you knew this story and these characters. It really was able to let you relate to that child. Being a boy or girl growing up in that generation you got a good laugh at all the things you forgot about from that time period. To the sister dancing to Oops I Did It Again, Mason playing his gameboy color at his grandmas, to the start of the presidential race between Obama and Mccain . On top of that the music in the movie was music that was popular in that year so it was amazing in itself just to hear the music progresses as well as the world around the kids.

Now aside from the filming technique the movie would have never done so well without the talented actors. These actors have so much experience with these characters playing them for 12 years and being so committed to these movies they didn’t get involved with a lot of other projects. Being a cast who are not hugely well known names it took away that “star” effect and let you level with the characters and see them as a regular family. The mother Olivia played by Patricia Arquette went on to win 4 awards for best supporting role and Mason played by Ellar Coltrane received the award for best young performer. 

This movie can be targeted towards anyone who sees it whether you are the grandma the mom, father, brother, or sister. You can place yourself in that movie and that’s what so many people did. This movie really relates to the boy obviously so if you are a highschool student currently you would really connect with how this boy grew up.

Over all I give Boyhood a 9 out of 10. Must see film, it will be a movie that you not forget. Get yourself away from the fantasy, the comedy, action or horror movie and take one of the biggest but most simple adventure through childhood.