Movie Review" Boyhood"

     Some movies are original, some are remakes, some are sequels, and some are adaptations of books of fiction, history, and biography.  "BOYHOOD" is an original; maybe an experimental genre, but whatever you call it, it works.  It has identifiable themes:  coming of age(adults and children); family dynamics; life stresses and coping with change.   Who can't identify with these themes?
     As we the viewers observe the family initially, we learn that a separation has occurred: Mom and Dad are divorced.  Single Mom with two youngsters, with some family support, even Dad every other weekend.  And then, things are different: everybody has aged a bit, especially the kids who are now bigger, older a bit, too.  We now are engaged in a timed family study that extends over 12 years.  Deft editing brings the viewer almost seamlessly into the next year in the lives of the family members as they change partners, move locations, change friends, change schools, and continue to grow-up.  Now the audience of viewers has bought into the dynamic of life as it changes for the actors on the screen.  We begin to recall our own life changes, those we can recall with clarity.  How did I change from 1st grade to 7th grade?  Where are all those friends I made and gave up to time and motion?  Soon we are carried along with the story, hoping that there will be some suitable transition as the principal actors become adults, and the parents become those mature parents, now empty nesters, looking back over that brief time in their lives that involved the chaos of negotiating life's travails.
     Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette deserve the praise bestowed on their performances.  The child actors, too, deserve high praise.  What a treat to look back on their youth and see it on the big screen!  Amazing!. 
        Director Richard Linklater shot the film on a low budget: $4 million.  Included in the cast was his daughter, Lorelei, as the older sister of Mason, Jr, Ellar Coltrane.  We follow them intimately as they grow, year after year into adults.  The film ends as Mason, Jr. goes off to college, now separated from his family and all that he grew up with.  Like we all did, all those many years ago.
5 *****'s.  Worth the $$. 162 minutes, seemed shorter.