With his latest film Boyhood, Richard Linklater has redefined the meaning of a coming-of-age film. The film, which was shot over 12 years and uses the same actors, tells the story of a boy growing up from age 6 to age 18 in a number of small Texas towns.

In many senses, the film is like time-lapse photography. The viewer sees the protagonist, Mason (Ellar Coltrane), change and develop, at first slowly and subtlety but by the end the viewer has witnessed the full development from boy to man. Mason is accompanied throughout the movie by his on-again, off-again dad, Ethan Hawke, his mother, Patricia Arquette, and his older sister, Lorelei Linklater who is the director’s real-life daughter.

For most of the movie, the characterization of Mason comes from how he acts rather than how he thinks. Linklater illustrates in this film, as well as many of his others, the English class adage “show don’t tell.” Unsuspectedly he tackles the hard questions of growing up in the post-millennial age: technology, family, masculinity, and self-reflection.

Boyhood serves as a cultural time machine, evoking very precise notions of the year’s milieu, informed by the choice of soundtrack, clothing, and media. The audience sees Mason pick up his midnight copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. They watch Mason peel off McCain campaign stickers and pluck picket fences in support of Barack Obama during the ’08 election. Meanwhile the entire movie is accompanied by time-specific sounds of Arcade Fire, Vampire Weekend, Gotye, Coldplay, Cobra Starship, and many others.

Despite the creative technique used, the movie lacks a central plot. Boyhood is not the tale of a unique, nuanced adolescence but rather a realistic depiction of what it meant to grow up in the 2000s.

However, Boyhood’s unique direction of being filmed over 12 years poses its own problems. At times, it may feel chopped and skips pieces of Mason’s character development. The film was shot in Texas over 12 years with one to two shooting period of three or four days each. In total, 4,200 days were spent in production. Considering Boyhood’s distinct shooting style and thorough production, the film’s existence is a miracle. Choppiness does exist but it is astounding it is not more prevalent.

The ending of the movie feels abrupt and maybe that is because it is. Boyhood is not meant to end because Mason’s tale is not one of beginning, middle, and end but rather a story of what real life looks like.