Reviews for this film from our members:
- Marco Albanese @ Stanze di Cinema [Italian]
- Excerpt: Il viaggio di Boyhood si ferma al primo giorno di college del suo protagonista, ma è solo una sosta. La vita continua.
- Mario Alegre @ Primera Hora [Spanish]
- Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
- Excerpt: ‘Boyhood’ reveals itself as something deeper, more noteworthy and ambitious than even its remarkable production would suggest, for Linklater has given us nothing less than a cinematic approximation of human memory.
- Chris Barsanti @ Film Racket
- Tim Brayton @ Antagony & Ecstasy
- Matt Brown @ Twitch
- Excerpt: In Boyhood we’re always ‘here now,’ with no moody dissolves or title cards to dog-ear the pages of the book. Thiths is boyhood, and this, I think, is the point.
- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat @ SpiritualityandPractice.com
- Excerpt: One of the best and most memorable films ever made about the art of improvisation as a path of wisdom, creativity, and personal renewal.
- Enrique Buchichio @ Cartelera.com.uy [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Una obra épica y simple (si acaso eso es posible), salida de las entrañas y el corazón de un autor verdaderamente independiente y maduro.
- Bob Cashill @ Popdose.com
- Excerpt: Debating the merits of an “instant masterpiece.”
- Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
- Excerpt: …will have you reflecting on your own life, all those moments big and small, many of which represented crossroads you may not have seen at the time.
- Carlos del Río @ El rincón de Carlos del Río [Spanish]
- Excerpt: Una gran idea que no está desarrollada bien del todo.
- Billy Donnelly @ This Is Infamous
- Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
- Excerpt: Here is a film that captures the essence of memory.
- Candice Frederick @ Reel Talk
- Excerpt: But what is truly moving is seeing her succumb to her own happiness–having a successful career, watching her children grow up in their own ways, and even getting that unexpected compliment from their father and her first husband (played by Ethan Hawke) who reaffirmed that, hey, in spite of everything she did alright.
- Kimberly Gadette @ doddle
- Excerpt: A dramatic fiction that allows us to run alongside the bumpy timeline of one family’s life. It’s a trek undeniably worth taking.
- Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
- Excerpt: ‘Boyhood’ is writer/director Richard Linklater’s masterpiece presenting the life of a boy from ages six to 18 using the same actor over 12 years.
- Susan Granger @ www.susangranger.com
- Excerpt: Richard Linklater’s naturalistic, bittersweet, coming-of-age alternative to studio productions.
- Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
- Excerpt: The drama advances organically and the actors perform naturally. Rarely has an individual’s developmental transitions been dramatized so imaginatively on film.
- Travis Hopson @ Examiner
- Excerpt: Despite some narrative issues, there’s no denying this sad, funny, and hopeful film is a technical and emotional achievement.
- MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
- Excerpt: An audacious coming-of-age tale unique in the history of cinema; deeply moving and beautifully authentic.
- Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
- Excerpt: Concerning ambition and sheer fortitude, Boyhood leapfrogs the Before films and shatters conventional expectations on how audiences consider the concept of time in movies.
- Daniel Kelly @ Danland
- Excerpt: I imagine that Linklater’s ultimate agenda back in 2002 was to make the child both known and unknown, to incur nodding recognition and awed surprise in equal measure. Nobody could have predicted how successful he’d be.
- Ben Kendrick @ Screen Rant
- Excerpt: A noteworthy accomplishment – and an unparalleled movie experience.
- James Kendrick @ The QNetwork
- Excerpt: Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is the greatest gimmick film since Christopher Nolan’s Memento (2001) precisely because its gimmick—in this case, shooting the film little bits at a time over 12 years so that the actors naturally age on screen—doesn’t feel gimmicky at all, but rather like a fundamentally organic part of the creative process.
- Jeremy Kibler @ The Artful Critic
- Excerpt: Taking biographical journeys and cinema to the next level, BOYHOOD goes beyond an inspired, unprecedented stunt, gimmick, or experiment and comes out a visionary, all-encompassing time capsule made up of moments that, without a single falsehood, feel real and full.
- Oktay Ege Kozak @ Oregon Herald
- Excerpt: The real reason to seek Boyhood out is in the way Linklater explores these characters with equal parts empathy and voyeurism. Just like the way our own memories work, picking random scenes from our lives as we try to make sense of the whole complex endeavor, we simply enter the memories of a young boy whose instantly relatable confusions, joys and frustrations are presented to us like a bunch of old-fashioned slides spread across an empty room.
- [New – 5/7/15] | Don Lewis @ Hammer to Nail
- Wesley Lovell @ Cinema Sight
- Excerpt: Richard Linklater is a fan of philosophical discussions. Boyhood is no different, exploiting an unexpected gimmick of filming the same actors over a span of 12 years, creating a compelling coming of age story about a young boy whose childhood is little different from those many of us experienced growing up.
- Marty Mapes @ Movie Habit
- Excerpt: Linklater’s bold experiment pays off
- Matthew McKernan @ FilmWhinge
- Excerpt: There is a spirit of John Cassavetes about this film, wherein the story or even an overarching point are somewhat unnecessary and the focus is on reality, human nature and possibilities. Boyhood is packed with nuance and detail and will probably prove to be endlessly rewatchable and new.
- Brent McKnight @ Beyond Hollywood
- Pat Mullen @ Cinemablographer
- Excerpt: It’s so weird to hear ‘Soulja Boy’ as a time stamp.
- João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
- Excerpt: É genial, mas nem sempre exemplar.
- Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
- Excerpt: Boyhood is a quiet-but-powerful experience that expresses a poignant authenticity about growing up (and, particularly, growing up in the USA). Some scenes brought back waves of memories for me, and others brought tears to my eyes; this is a film like no other, the definitive coming-of-age movie.
- Tiago Ramos @ Split Screen [Portuguese]
- Jamie S. Rich @ DVD Talk
- Excerpt: The sum total of these excellent scenes is a pretty impressive whole, the image of a life lovingly observed.
- Tom Santilli @ Examiner.com
- Excerpt: Such a simple film, to possess this much magnitude.
- Cole Smithey @ ColeSmithey.com
- Excerpt: Just when you thought there was nothing new under the sun, Richard Linklater goes and makes the most anti-Hollywood movie ever conceived.
- Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
- Excerpt: An instant classic twelve years in the making, striking in its tender tone and stunning in ts cumulative emotional impact.
- Betty Jo Tucker @ ReelTalk Movie Reviews
- Mel Valentin @ Next Projection
- Excerpt: An affecting exploration of the complexities and contradictions of a particular family and the positive-negative impact of seemingly mundane events (here momentous, if not epic-scaled).
- Sarah Ward @ Concrete Playground
- Andrew Wyatt @ St. Louis Magazine
- Excerpt: By contrasting his young protagonist with the older characters, Linklater illustrates the way that youth’s receptiveness to the present is slowly replaced with the anxiety, regret, and self-pity of adulthood.
