The film industry has spent years upon years trying to tell authentic stories in their purest form. Budgets get larger, explosions get louder, and the everyday movie watcher gets itchy when a movie lasts longer than two hours. Tonight, I took on a double feature, closing up the night with the highly acclaimed Boyhood.

Director Richard Linklater took the same cast over a 12-year time span and told a story of a young boy growing up. But perhaps the most fascinating detail about this film is that it was shot in only 39 days, taking a few days to shoot and build the story each summer from 2002 until 2013. (Charleston City Paper). The film is a cultural timepiece, with subtle references to the years that pass and the entities that go along with it; a Gameboy color, a release party for a new Harry Potter book, and a stab at President-nominee John Kerry amidst an election year. It’s in the slightest details that I felt myself back in the early 2000’s, recalling my own childhood memories from first kisses to family arguments. Through the film, you watch as Mason (Ellar Coltrane) battles some of life’s toughest situations; bullies at school, moving from city to city, drunken step-dads, and the long weekend drives when dad comes to town to hang out at the bowling alley. But unlike most coming-of-age films, there isn’t this dynamic plot twist or a crazy turn of events that wrecks the protagonist. Instead, you have a consistently realistic story of a boy’s life. When Mason graduated from high school, there was a special moment in which all of his family was gathered in the living room, raising their glasses to his accomplishments and future. At that instant, I felt like I, too, was in the living room celebrating the tough life that he had lived. I connected with his brokenness and related to his curiosity.

My thanks to Linklater for reminding us all that our own story does not have to be one of exhaustive twists and turns, but it is the day-to-day that really makes us who we are.  For three hours, I was able to live vicariously through his eyes, with the reminder that, just like Mason’s, our childhoods disappear and we’re standing here in adulthood looking back wondering what the heck happened. Boyhood is far from being a roller coaster of life’s adventures, but rather a long drive in the desert with a crappy car radio and plenty of time to think. Because life’s not about seizing the moment as much as it’s about letting the moment seize you.