Editor:

Your film reviewer Dev Richards completely missed the value of the amazing movie Boyhood ("Give and Take," Aug. 21). Filmed over 12 years, you really see the characters grow and change over time, and it's so much more real because the actors really are older and are changing themselves — which is of course most striking with the children (the boy is 6 at the film's opening, and a young man of 18 at the close). Boyhood is not particularly plot-driven; it's more like slices of life. But there's so much truth and universal human experience captured in those slices!

I've seen it twice, so far; the film has reminded me of many crucially formative experiences I myself had as a child, and has helped me better understand those experiences from my now-56-year-old perspective. I do not have children, but many parents will be moved by the film from this additional perspective, as well as from the perspective of their own childhood. I hope the negative review in your paper will not dissuade too many readers from seeing this groundbreaking, beautiful and deeply moving film.

Brian Julian, Blue Lake