Boyhood
IFC Films | Release Date: July 11, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
100
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 50 Critic Reviews
Positive:
50
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanFeb 7, 2015
There’s not a great theme, a great performance or even a great scene in Boyhood. But I think it might be a great picture. Read full review
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 7, 2014
The greatest movies, the ones that stick with us, are those that hold up a mirror to the human condition and reflect something back at us that we too often manage to overlook. Boyhood is one of those movies, and with it Linklater proves he is among the best practitioners of that art. Read full review
100
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 31, 2014
The film would be incalculably different if the lead role had been divided between two or three young actors for a conventional shoot. But Linklater’s patience allows us to see a thoughtful personality being formed both on and off the screen. Read full review
100
TimeRichard CorlissJul 30, 2014
A home movie of a fictional home life, an epic assembled from vignettes, Boyhood shimmers with unforced reality. It shows how an ordinary life can be reflected in an extraordinary movie. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 30, 2014
I'm as reluctant to stop writing about this movie as I was to stop watching it: At 166 minutes, it flies by, and you don't want to leave that world. But one thing is certain: This isn't the last word. People will be writing about this film for years - and looking at it to discover the lost history of our time. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJul 30, 2014
Is it dumb to say, "Wow?"...I don't care. Wow. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 30, 2014
This bold movie may sound like a stunt, but it’s so much more than that. Linklater is an effortless, genial auteur, and his passions are woven through “Dazed and Confused,” “School of Rock” and the “Before Sunrise” trilogy. Here, his mellow groove becomes an everyday rhythm. Read full review
100
SalonAndrew O'HehirJul 30, 2014
In its own quiet way, it’s a world of marvels. Read full review
100
Portland OregonianJeff BakerJul 25, 2014
The revelation is Arquette. While the focus is on Coltrane and how he grew up onscreen, it's Arquette that's at the center of this incredible journey. She puts herself out there year after year, getting knocked down and getting up stronger. Her final scenes have the power and heartbreak every parent knows -- it's all about holding a child's hand, then letting it go. Read full review
100
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJul 24, 2014
The good news is you’re feeling stuff, you know? And you’ve got to hold on to that. You get older, and you don’t feel as much, your skin gets tough.” This remarkable, wonderful movie helps you remember. Read full review
100
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 18, 2014
It’s the ultimate time-travel movie into the future, a “flowing time sculpture,” in Linklater’s own words. Read full review
100
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJul 17, 2014
Linklater’s film is very much its own hybrid creature. While the dramatic scaffolding is lightly drawn, it becomes apparent that Linklater has organized his material along certain themes, most notably that of the passage of time and the dream life of childhood. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 17, 2014
Once in a great while I see a movie I know I’ll be listing as one of my all-time favorites for the rest of my days. So it is with this remarkable, unforgettable, elegant epic that is about one family — and millions of families. It’s a pinpoint-specific and yet universal story. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 17, 2014
As a film that dares to honor small moments and the life they add up to, Boyhood isn’t just a masterpiece. It’s a miracle. Read full review
100
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 17, 2014
Boyhood is not just a great movie, it's a landmark achievement in film. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 17, 2014
Boyhood is a stunt, an epic, a home video, and a benediction. It reminds us of what movies could be and — far more important — what life actually is. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 17, 2014
In completing this simple, beautiful project Linklater took his time. And he rewards ours. Read full review
100
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenJul 16, 2014
Linklater’s newest film, a true masterwork, eschews this big-bang theory of dramatics in favor of the million-and-one little things that accumulate daily and help shape who we are, and who we will become. Read full review
100
NPRBob MondelloJul 11, 2014
It seems almost odd to talk of performances when they're as natural and unforced as they are in Boyhood, but they're fascinating, with the adults nearly as physically altered by time as the kids. Read full review
100
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJul 11, 2014
I love how Boyhood admits that, in certain ways, growing up stinks. Every character has a least one moment in which they have to heed the advice of Corinthians and put away childish things. None of them like it. Read full review
100
Total FilmMatt GlasbyJul 10, 2014
Extraordinary in form, ‘ordinary’ in content, Boyhood is ambitious, intimate and unforgettable. It might just be the apex of Linklater’s life’s work. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyJul 10, 2014
An extraordinarily intimate portrait of a life unfolding and an exceptional, unconventional film. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinJul 10, 2014
Living with Mason and his parents over time you feel an intimacy, an empathy, a shared stake. I’m not saying Boyhood is the greatest film I’ve ever seen, but I’m thinking there’s my life before I saw it and my life now, and it’s different; I know movies can do something that just last week I didn’t. They can make time visible. Read full review
100
SlateDana StevensJul 10, 2014
Boyhood reimagines the coming-of-age film as family album, longitudinal character study, and collaborative artistic experiment — a mad risk that paid off in a movie that’s as transcendent as it is ordinary, just like life. Read full review
100
USA TodayClaudia PuigJul 10, 2014
One of the most extraordinary films in decades, this family drama is also one of the most ambitious in scope, having taken more than a decade to shoot. Yet it comes across as effortless and unassuming. Boyhood is an epic masterpiece that seems wholly unconcerned with trying to be one. Read full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 10, 2014
On rare occasions a movie seems to channel the flow of real life. Boyhood is one of those occasions. In its ambition, which is matched by its execution, Richard Linklater's endearing epic is not only rare but unique. Read full review
100
The New York TimesManohla DargisJul 10, 2014
In Boyhood, Mr. Linklater’s masterpiece, he both captures moments in time and relinquishes them as he moves from year to year. He isn’t fighting time but embracing it in all its glorious and agonizingly fleeting beauty. Read full review
100
CineVueBen NicholsonJul 10, 2014
Fortunately, Boyhood concludes on a note of such unbridled optimism, Linklater is defying you to leave the auditorium without a grin on your face. Indeed, few will after experiencing this astonishing cinematic treasure. Read full review
100
HitfixDrew McWeenyJul 9, 2014
Boyhood is more than a movie; it is a vibrant, living thing, and it is beautiful, and it is sad, and it is wise, and it is sprawling, and it is intimate, and it is painful, and it is more than any filmmaker could have intended, and, yes… when it comes to trying to capture truth in a way that cannot be argued or denied or even summarized… I am sure that nothing will ever be this good again. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Jul 9, 2014
There’s a cumulative power here that transcends any rough patches. Boyhood isn’t perfect, but it’s an astonishing, one-of-a-kind accomplishment—and further proof that Linklater is one of the most daring, ambitious filmmakers working today. Read full review
100
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 9, 2014
Want to know what it's like to be in on the discovery of a new American classic. Check out Boyhood. Richard Linklater's coming-of-age tale is the best movie of the year, a four-star game-changer that earns its place in the cultural time capsule. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 9, 2014
Like Michael Apted in his "Seven Up!" documentary series, Linklater makes you feel as if you're watching a photograph as it develops in the darkroom. Read full review
100
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 8, 2014
Boyhood had the curious effect of making me feel lost, uneasy, a little alone in the inexorable march forward — and also totally, emphatically alive. Read full review
100
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreJul 8, 2014
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood is an amazing achievement in telling an unremarkably remarkable life story. Read full review
100
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 8, 2014
As he has throughout his career, from “Slacker” and “Dazed and Confused” to the lovely “Bernie” to the “Before” trilogy, Linklater proves himself as a filmmaker unconcerned with flash and dazzle but thoroughly compassionate and empathetic to a wide range of characters. Read full review
100
EmpireLiz BeardsworthJul 7, 2014
Linklater’s beautiful film is an extraordinary achievement — tender, funny, wise and wistful, full of warmth and humanity. Read full review
100
The GuardianXan BrooksJan 26, 2014
What an astonishing achievement; what a beautiful movie. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 26, 2014
It's the selective but cumulative use of seemingly arbitrary but significant experiences that gives Boyhood its distinctive character and impressive weight. Read full review
100
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 26, 2014
It’s an astonishing achievement. Linklater and his cast, who helped refine the director’s script, perfectly execute how long it takes us to become the lead characters in our own lives, and how fumblingly the role is first assumed. Read full review
100
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 26, 2014
Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time. Read full review
100
IndieWireEric KohnJan 26, 2014
Epic in scope yet unassuming throughout, Linklater's incredibly involving chronicle marks an unprecedented achievement in fictional storytelling. Read full review
95
Film.comWilliam GossMar 28, 2014
Like the best of fiction, it conveys greater truth about coming to terms with the world at large, and regardless of whether each individual scene is ultimately justified in its inclusion, the cumulative impact of seeing something resembling a life unfold over a mere two hours and forty minutes is overwhelming. Read full review
90
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 14, 2014
The profuse pleasures of Boyhood spring not from amazement but from recognition — from saying, Yes, that’s true, and that feels right, or that’s how it was for me, too. Read full review
90
The DissolveNoel MurrayJul 9, 2014
If the movie is about any one idea in particular, it’s about how parents do their best to stay on top of how their children grow, by taking pictures and documenting the memorable occasions, only to learn too late that most of life happens between the posing. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 26, 2014
With Boyhood, Linklater has created an uncanny time capsule, inviting auds to relive their own upbringing through a series of artificial memories pressed like flowers between the pages of a family photo album. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 9, 2014
When it's over, the sense is one of deep satisfaction - of having gotten to know a family in a way few motion pictures allow. Read full review
88
New York PostLou LumenickJul 9, 2014
Linklater ambitiously shot his new effort over a period of 12 years with the same cast, showcasing what turns out to be an astonishing performance by newcomer Ellar Coltrane, who grows up from 6 to 18 before our eyes over the course of 164 minutes. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJan 26, 2014
Warm, soulful, funny and quietly insightful, Boyhood shines in its engrossing, experiential understanding and it’s a special achievement that should be cherished and acknowledged. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 30, 2014
It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezJun 15, 2014
Richard Linklater's film is an experiment in time, and one that's attentive to the audience's sense of empathy. Read full review
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