Boyhood is a Richard Linklater film that follows a boy named Mason from age 5 to age 18.

Unlike other movies that attempt the same type of storytelling, this piece was filmed over a 12-year period to create a sense of realism to this coming-of-age tale that may never be matched.

The crew would meet three or four random days twice a year for this decade-and-then-some production.

To add to the authenticity of the movie, the director worked with the major actors to come up with stories and narratives that they experienced in their own life for these random points in this boy’s life.

This film does not only work to tell the story of this fictitious child, but to also represent life as a series of moments that we all live and let pass without giving them much importance.

Just like any other good film experience, I found myself submerged into a story and quickly lost sight of the fact that I was watching a child develop into a man in front of my eyes.

Everything from pointless arguments between adolescent siblings to the joy, confusion and pain of a high school love, this movie begins to feel like it is a documentary because of how genuine the story is.

Outside of the story, which deserves its own discussion, there is the time and effort that the director put forth to bring this concept to life. The amount of footage that they must have gone through and mental fortitude that it had to have taken for the director to not believe at some point during this 12-year period that he wasn’t wasting time is an achievement in itself.

There was no point in the movie that I felt as if I missed out on anything, even though it jumps a two-year span in Mason’s life.

All-in-all, the entire film succeeded in portraying the story of life and what it means to grow up.

What better outlet is there to present this than on the silver screen, because really, what is life more than a movie?