The 2014 movie Boyhood follows a boy (surprise), Mason, from age 5 to 18. The movie used the same cast members and filmed over 13 real years, allowing us to watch the lead actor, Ellar Coltrane grow up from scene to scene. This was simultaneously interesting and disconcerting. Here I was watching a fictional, contrived story while watching the same actor develop in real time.
This longitudinal character study has been explored extensively in the British 7 Up series where director Michael Apted interviewed the same group of individuals every 7 years for the past 50 years. This is a documentary series so showing the character changes are more overt than how the Boyhood characters change from year to year.
Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke play their flawed parental characters very well and serve as the fictional characters that pinned the story to entertainment.
At 2 hours 45 minutes, this was a long familial study, showing “what the boy saw” throughout his life. I bet it wins some awards this year.