Coming-of-age movie a strong Oscar contender

Critics have also lavished praise on the film, hailing the simplicity and natural way Linklater depicts the transition from childhood to adulthood.

The actors were pleasantly surprised by how the film turned out in the end.

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Even though all of them were involved in writing the screenplay, no one really knew what Linklater would make of it all.

At one point his own daughter, bored with the multiyear project, asked if her character could die. Her father said no.

Arquette, who won an Emmy in 2005 for her role in the TV series Medium, says she deliberately didn't ask to see the film before it was finalized.

"He showed me five years put together at one point, and then I said I didn't want to see it again until it was all finished," Arquette says.

For the actress, making the film was a "unique experience" and a challenge, notably because of the physical changes in all the actors that had to be taken into account.

But she says she didn't find it difficult to get inside her own character.

"I found a lot of my mom in her and of myself. For some strange reason it wasn't hard, and I don't know why," she says.

Variety called the film Linklater's "crowning achievement".

"No other American director has done a better job of capturing the verisimilitude of ordinary life," it added.