BOYHOOD

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Ellar Coltrane: 6-year-old Mason

Patricia Arquette: his mother Olivia

Lorelei Linklater: Mason’s 8-year-old sister Samantha “Sam”

Libby Villari: Mason’s grandmother

Ethan Hawke: Mason’s father

Marco Perella: Professor Bill Welbrock

Brad Hawkins: Jim, an Afghanistan/Iraq War veteran

Jenni Tooley: Mason Sr.’s new girlfriend

Zoe Graham: Mason Jr.’s new girlfriend

REVIEW

The thing that sets this apart from all the other movies about growing up is the unconventional method used: the same four principal actors play their role during the 12-year period it took to film. Usually actors who look like their younger counterparts are brought in to advance the story.

Episodic in nature, about every two or three years there is another series of events centering around the lives of the four. But the passage of time occurs without warning: from one scene to the next they have aged. Snap! Just like that.

Another thing that sets this one apart from most movies is its length: with a running time of 166 minutes following the usual trailers means a three-hour viewing session. Not everyone has that much time to spend watching a film.

The acting is uniformly good although the kid’s parents are the best of the bunch.

CLASSIFICATION

for language including sexual references as well as for teen drug and alcohol use.