Boyhood by Richard Linklater starring actor Ellar Coltrane

FILMED OVER 12 YEARS, HOUSTON SCENES, RATED R

Scroll down for Houston theaters playing Boyhood and the official IFC films movie trailer

BOYHOOD, the film by Richard Linklater, is remarkable and extraordinary and beautiful for so many reasons.

It’s about a boy named Mason (Ellar Coltrane) who partly grows up in Houston and surrounding Texas cities with his older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater). The film is shot over 12 years with the same cast, so we witness Mason grow and change from the time he is six years old to the time he is 18. For Houstonians, a side treat is recognizing the locations of some of the shoots – it’s fun to watch scenes filmed at Miller Outdoor Theatre, Minute Maid Park and the Cockrell Butterfly Center!

When production started in 2002, director Richard Linklater asked for a good-faith annual commitment from the core cast and crew, which included actors Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke who play Mason’s parents. Each year, there was the gargantuan task of aligning all the artists’ schedules to shoot together for three to four days.

The fruit of Linklater’s incredible vision and labor is a wonderful film that not only tells one boy’s story or one family’s story, it pushes the audience to reflect and project on their own lives – back to their own childhoods or towards the future of their own kids.

Linklater used cultural transitions to tie together the dozen years including fashion trends, music, political events and of course, technological devices.
BOYHOOD is now playing at Landmark River Oaks and The Woodlands Tinseltown 17. Starting August 1, the film will also be shown at AMC Willowbrook, AMC Town and Country and AMC First Colony.

CLICK HERE for the ROGER EBERT.COM REVIEW OF BOYHOOD