I'll have to check it out a for a re-watch, but I found the lead actor performance very hard to engage with. He gave nothing, which is inexcusable when you see what non-actors are capable of in other productions (The Wire etc), even if he was picked as a child. That combined with a fizzled out later stages kind of made it homage to the purposelessness of much of modern western life to me. Comfortable, but disposable.

I can't fault the ambition, or Arquette but as a project I think it was less than the sum of its parts.

6/10

HE IS REAL.FROM START TO FINISH HE DOES NOT GIVE A GREAT PERFORMANCE.HE IS A REAL KID AND COMES OFF AS A REAL KID.ITS MAKES THE FILM EVEN BETTER.

@rudely_murray said:

Boyhood is a remarkable film, so much more than its 'gimmick' of filming the story with the same actors over 12 years. Watching the characters - both children and adults - age on screen over three hours is a powerful experience and due to this unique production, Boyhood captures the poignancy of time passing as few films can.

I admire how the film does not spell things out by portraying all the 'big' moments in the character's lives - rather than show a scene of a wedding or divorce, say, we simply slip ahead in time to another 'smaller' moment in these character's lives and the viewer is left to fill in the bigger details themselves.

A deeply touching film. The late scene where the guy approaches the family and says to Patricia Arquette's Mom, "Believe it or not, you changed me life" is a wonderfully moving moment, just one of many.

Yes, I really enjoyed this film. I might get it on DVD after I watched it last weekend.