Director: Richard Linklater
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 3.0
Twelve year project by the ever-consistent and creative Linklater follows Mason (Ellar Coltrane) - along with sister Sam (Lorelei Linklater, Richard's daughter), Mom (Patricia Arquette) and estranged Dad (Ethan Hawke) - as he grows from a 5-year-old in Texas to a freshman pursuing his passion for photography in college. Though the ambition and scope is nearly unprecedented in cinema and certainly worthy of applause, one can't help but wonder whether the slightly disjointed feel this has (due to his filming vignettes each year and editing them together) wouldn't have been avoided if he just did it 'normally,' i.e. with makeup and different performers who look similar and a more controlled script. Still, it's hard to argue with the grace Linklater brings to his productions and his ability to let his character live, breathe and converse naturally - as binding agents, Hawke and Arquette (in what's probably the best performance of her career) reveal their own growth as adults, with Hawke 'straightening' his life out and Arquette, as a single mother, training in psychology (and becoming a teacher) and going through a series of Bad Men. But the real Ph.D. in psychology belongs to Linklater, who details the process of a shy child becoming an introspective young adult with great insight and patience.
