Boyhood

You've got to give Richard Linklatter credit for ambition - this film took 12 years to make using the same main characters as they age.  It's a true coming of age story for the child actors Ellar Coltrane and the director's real life daughter, Lorelai Linklatter.  The dad might as well be family as well, Ethan Hawke.  Mom is Patricia Arquette.

Like an actual boyhood, this movie has some of the unpleasant parts of growing up in chronological order:  divorce(s), first everythings, moving, fighting, and rejections.  Not to mention a variety of hairstyles and clothing styles.  The prop techs didn't have too much to do:  the period pieces work well with the Harry Potter craze, when the Astros were better, and the Bush and Obama campaigns.  If you've been conscious the past 12 years, it will be like a trip down Memory Lane.

All soaring ambition aside, the movie falls a bit flat.  Mixed with some of the most heartfelt feelings are those times where it just seems like there is drama made for the movies.  Perhaps everyone might see each of these a little different.  For example, I identified with the "car speech" but not with the stepfather role.  Others with a different life history might feel the opposite.

The locations were nice, being set in Houston and San Marcos.  It had a nice Texas feel to it.  And of course, I loved the scene at the Butler 3 Par Course in Austin.

As you might say about growing up in general, Boyhood is a long story that is not always so interesting.

* * 1/2