It brings back memories of _Slackers_, that feeling of ease and naturalness—just letting things unfold, living in the moment. The _Before_ films also had that quality, seeming effortless yet clearly crafted with immense care, suggesting a filmmaker who deeply valued experience and learning, someone willing to surrender to the present while treating every situation with sensitivity. But nothing could have prepared me for _Boyhood_. It's hard to overemphasize how much of a grand, free-flowing time-lapse experiment it is, and most of the people involved—not actors, really—were cast when the central character was just a young boy looking up at the sky, with no idea what his future held. The world might feel like a stage, but Richard Linklater isn't all-powerful. As an ongoing work in progress, a bold partnership with fate and destiny, it’s impossible to know how the boy’s story would resolve itself or how all the people around him would shape him as he moved toward adulthood. Only a truly confident and fluid filmmaker, someone genuinely disarming and innovative, could nurture something like this with such beauty and wisdom. _Dazed and Confused_? Make room for _Clear and Composed_. There's a raw quality to it; _Boyhood_ is an experimental work wrapped in familiar packaging. The need to shoot it chronologically—with its 12-year shooting schedule—demanded a new approach to filmmaking. If something had gone wrong during those long breaks, if an actor became unavailable or some unexpected event threatened the continuity of the boy and his family’s lives, there was no way to go back and reshoot. No relying on makeup tricks or casting different actors to play the same character at various ages. The faith put into this concept and the care taken in bringing it to life is remarkable to witness, unfolding before our eyes. Patricia Arquette seemed to be growing up alongside her character. She appeared to age faster than Ellar Coltrane. This movie resists being broken down into separate, disconnected episodes. Arquette delivers a commendable and dedicated performance as a mother trying to hold herself and her family together. Because of the blending of fiction and reality, between drama and documentary, and because of how Linklater is able to foster the process and let his films develop their own life, it’s possible she wasn't really acting any more than she would in real life. With a minor shift in focus, this movie could have just as easily been called _Motherhood_.

Source on TMDB