Boyhood

So this is a movie made with tons of patience (filming only a couple of scenes every year, over a span of 12 years), so it's only fair that the movie demands the viewer to have some patience (it's a long movie that trudges along slowly and lyrically). I don't know if I loved the movie because I'm a mom of a little boy (very much like the 5-year old Mason at the beginning of the movie), or because it's a movie one can relate to irrespective. Loved the sensitive passive-watcher-through-a-secret-camera feel of what seem like petty everyday events which add up to a portrayal of a little boys coming-of-age journey. Loved, loved, loved it!

Yes, it's an extremely long movie & almost documentary-like, but never got bored. Not for a minute.

The benefit of filming a movie over so many years I suppose, is that the filmmaker doesn't need to stage any of his surroundings to the appropriate era. Britney Spears was the queen of pop 12 years ago, smart phones came along roughly 6 years ago, video games evolved, fashion evolved, hair styles and definitions of "high school coolness" evolved, and it's all captured while it happened. What a master stroke that is!