Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)

8.5/10
I saw Boyhood on Thursday but only got around to writing my review now, not out of any specific design but just because I wasn't immediately sure what I wanted to say about it (or how I felt about it). I figured when I knew, I'd write about it. So I was watching TV last night and an ad for Boyhood came on, it started with a picture of Mason's face as a boy all the way up until his to his adult self. And the feeling I got when I saw the ad was extremely unexpected - the jolt of recognition when his picture came up was like seeing a family member on the news, or something like that. Because Boyhood's realism is so effortless and sublime it was nearly impossible to think of Mason as being played by an actor - he was someone you pretty much actually watched grow up over the course of a movie.
As for the movie itself, I was thrilled that there wasn't any overarching storyline or that episodes from the past didn't magically crop up again in the future (except for one minor one that I let slide). The episodic format of the movie may have been necessary due to the sheer weight of trimming down 12 years of on-and-off filming in to a less-than-three hour movie but it felt like life itself more than anything else.
This isn't a movie I would revisit in any particular hurry but it was a wonderful experience to enjoy and certainly one of the most unique filmmaking ventures ever undertaken.