Boyhood

Aroview: Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, this entirely unique project bares witness to an 8-year-old boy literally matures on screen before our eyes, serving as both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting.

Though it found mainstream success through critical acclaim and Oscar nominations, this is very much a cinematic experiment that falls between the tidy conventions of narrative fiction and the ostensible realism of documentary film-making. The result is semi-organic; messy and unresolved (like life) and yet subject to contrivances, and as such has divided audiences. Having said that, it is a stimulating, important work that will likely set the template for a future genre in this landscape of ubiquitous filmed images.