On a film set, a lot of time, money and effort goes into making sure that one shot matches the next. Cinematographers tinker endlessly with the lights so that you can’t tell that the sun has moved in the sky, hair and makeup crews make little adjustments and the script supervisor is there to remind an actor which hand was holding their coffee cup in the last take. But as Jean-Luc Godard accurately proclaimed, “Every edit is a lie.” When assembling a scene in the editing room, filmmakers are literally making a collage or mosaic of time. Each take on set is documenting a specific moment in time that will never happen again. And that is precisely what Boyhood sets out to capture.
Shooting one week a year over the course of twelve years, Richard Linklater was able to create a film where the fact that time has passed from one cut to the next is actually part of the narrative. What might have been distracting in another film, just sails right by in this one. And though it is also a story of the last twelve years in Texas, it is first and foremost a universal story about adolescence. Technology, fashion and politics can change, but the experience of being young and trying to find yourself is a constant. Audiences young and old will be able to find truth and beauty in this film for generations to come. And that is why it is a masterpiece.
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