Over the course of twelve years, a young boy (Ellar Coltrane) comes of age in 21st-century Texas. Beginning with his unreliable biological father (Ethan Hawke), the boy watches as his mom (Patricia Arquette) cycles through a series of doomed relationships. Director Richard Linklater could have taken his superbly crafted coming-of-age screenplay (a wise, ambitious piece built around small, tender moments) down a traditional path of fiction film producing, but instead, he gambled on a daring, unconventional storytelling technique that places this work of narrative fiction in close conversation with nonfiction filmmaking. Starting in 2002 and continuing each year through 2013, Linklater filmed scenes for his movie with the same cast members. This risky decision to create fictional cinema at the pace of reality pays extraordinary, unprecedented dividends; Coltrane’s gradual blossoming from quiet young presence to magnetic performer ranks among the most moving transformations ever captured on celluloid. (CB) Presented by the Columbia Daily Tribune.