Richard Linklater is my favorite contemporary American filmmaker. He does just about everything, and well. Twenty years ago Linklater made the best hangout movie ever, and last year one of best marriage films I’ve ever seen in Before Midnight. What’s rare about Linklater, in my mind, is that the more films he makes, the better his films get. In 2003 I wrote my thesis on his body of work, thinking he’d done enough to be remembered.

Since then, his films have only gotten more dynamic and strange, and unexpected. But it’s possible I’ve never anticipated a film, from Linklater or anyone, more than I have Boyhood.

Boyhood tells the story of one kid’s life as he comes of age. His name is Mason, and he’s played by Ellar Coltrane. His parents, played by Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette, are divorced, and Mason’s life is, for the most part, pretty average.

What’s special about this film is that Linklater and his cast filmed Boyhood for 12 years. Coltrane was 6 years old when he was cast in this movie, and production ended when he was 18. It is, literally, the story of Mason’s boyhood.

For most of those 12 years, no one outside the cast and crew even knew the film was being made. Eventually the secret was out, and fans have been wildly anticipating its release ever since.

A while back Hawke described the process of making Boyhood, and said:

Doing a scene with a young boy at the age of 7 when he talks about why do raccoons die, and at the age of 12 when he talks about video games, and 17 when he asks me about girls, and have it be the same actor - to watch his voice and body morph - it’s a little bit like timelapse photography of a human being. I can’t wait for people to see it.

Boyhood won the Silver Bear (best director) at the Berlin Film Festival. The reviews from Sundance were basically ecstatic. An unparalleled film project, it seems likely Boyhood’s going to be special.

The first trailer for the film was released today. I cannot wait to finally see it. Boyhood will be released this July.