20 Great Films You Won't Believe Aren't On IMDb's Top 250
5. Boyhood
Rating: 7.9
An epic 12 years in the making, Richard Linklater's Boyhood is literally the story of a lifetime. With a running time of three hours and a breathtaking scope, this could easily qualify as an epic. This label is immediately thrown into question by how low-key and intimate the film truly is. Barely anything happens and it's just a depiction of an ordinary life unfolding, with most of the big events taking place off-screen.
You can accuse Boyhood of being slow, boring and uneventful all you like, but the truth is that life itself can be slow, boring and uneventful. Few other films have ever captured life in its mundanity, complexity, beauty and pain like Boyhood did and watching a boy literally age before your eyes is one of the most incredible cinematic experiences in recent memory.
Boyhood says a ridiculous amount about the human condition and about the ups and downs of life despite being such a subtle and gentle piece, which makes it a fairly miraculous bit of film-making. This is easily one of the films of the decade and it completely deserves to be on the list.
Where It Should Be: #100-#150