What Does It Mean to Grow Up?

What are your memories of growing up?  What stands out?  For me it's stepping onto stage in front of a full house, yet not the curtain call. It's the hug line at high school graduation, yet not getting my diploma.  It's walking up a new street in a new city, yet not the flight to get to that new city.  This is true of most things in your life - the seemingly insignificant moments leave the greater imprint on your brain. It is this idea that beautifully drives Richard Linklater's Boyhood, a nearly three hour study of growing up, what it means to us, and how it's the little things that matter. 

The film begins with Mason at six years old. Played by Ellar Coltrane, Mason is precocious and innocent, riding bikes with friends an dealing with his parents divorce. You know, kid stuff. His parents, played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, have divorced after having two kids and Mom is in the process of remarrying.  Mason's sister Samantha, played by the directors's real life daughter Lorelei Linklater, is not as easy going as her younger brother.  Being the older child, she experiments with and tests her parents nerves much sooner and to greater effect.  After a hilarious opening involving how much patience an older sister is willing to tolerate, Boyhood continues to follow these characters over the course of 12 years, catching some 'life' moments and those in between. And it's those in between moments that really propel the film forward. 

Filming started 12 years ago when Richard Linklater round up this talented group of actors to tell this story. While it could have easily failed, Boyhood's subtle and light storytelling approach sees that it rises above a simple gimmick.  Watching a character, played by the same actor, grow with fun and uncertainty from adolescence to adulthood is pure joy.  Seeing the awkwardness of growing up, told with such humility and honesty, is a refreshing reprieve from the onslaught of summer explosions.  At times poignant, though more often funny, Boyhood is a must see film - a needed break from the high octane summer action movies. It's a real treat that will leave, even a cynic like me, hopeful for the future.