Boyhood (2014)

This is an amazing film.
Richard Linklater took twelve years to film this masterpiece and it is.
This film chronicles the growing up of Mason, Jr. (Ellar Coltrane) and his sister, Samantha (Lorelei Linklater), their difficulties and triumphs.
Mason is six when the film begins, dealing with a move as his mother, Olivia (Patricia Arquette), decides to continue her education and that means moving closer to her mother in Houston. Olivia falls in love with one of her college professors, Bill (Marco Perella) who turns out to be even worse than her first husband. Bill is an alcoholic who throws glass bottles at her children and his own and when Olivia goes to rescue her kids, she has to bring a friend with her and he barely lets the kids leave the house. They leave all their belongings behind.
They move on. Olivia gets her master's degree and starts teaching at a college several hundred miles away, though that's probably for the best. Mason discovers photography and develops a true talent for it, though his work ethic isn't spectacular at first though he gets better. A girl breaks his heart, he moves on. Life will still continue.
This is the most realistic film I've seen in some time, maybe ever. The actors, with the notable exception of Ethan Hawke as Mason, Sr. aren't that attractive, and the settings are all real. The film has the true documentary feel and is just so authentic.
Sure, there are some plots that should have had more to them, just cutting them off in the middle, as life is, and one scene where Olivia takes Mason, Sr. outside to yell at him is told from the point of view of the children while I'm more interested in it from her point of view, furious that her ex brought the kids to her house when she wanted them returned to her mother's house. Who knows why a successful, fairly wealthy man would resort to drinking alcohol all the time, hiding it from his wife. And we never see Bill's two children again, though Olivia felt horrible about leaving them there, but she couldn't take them with her but she did call their mother and Child Protective Services, so hopefully they would also get out of the situation.
Though Olivia gets a good job and is popular at the college, she is still devastated when Mason leaves for college, because the best years of her life are over. While Mason, Sr. gets to do the whole thing again with his second wife, she is alone and can't believe it.
Probably the scene I found farthest fetched was when one of the workers on Olivia's septic tank thanks her for her instance that he go to school.  Sure, that scene demonstrates how something so little could have such a big influence on someone's life, but I just couldn't fully believe it.
Arquette and Hawke both received Oscar nominations with Arquette winning in her category and she was great as was Hawke. Arquette doesn't make the best decisions but she tries and she wants better for her kids, loving them and letting them know how disappointed she is, but she understands them. And that is what mattered.
Sure, I would have liked the film to end on the sad but realistic note of Olivia crying saying that she had nothing as Mason was leaving for college. Instead, the film ends with Mason meeting someone new at college and her telling him that moments seize them instead of the other way around.
Still, with the actors aging realistically over twelve years dealing with situations that unfortunately happen all the time, this is a film that needs to be viewed. For a nearly three hour film, it mostly flies by, which is just wonderful and is anchored by the excellent performances, seamless editing and utter realism. Grade: A