Richard Linklater has always had his head in the past. Eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfully era of his life has been mined in/with regard to’concerning’regarding cinematic treasures, be it high school (Dazed And Confused), university (Eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullybody Wants Some!!), early adulthood (Bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e Sunrise), or pretty much all of the above (Boyhood). This, his 21st feature, zeroes in on merely’barely a single summer, but it’s no less vivid in/with regard to’concerning’regarding it; if anything, it feels like his most personal film in years.###As with Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e it, Linklater uses a unique style of animation to take his trip down memory lane: directing his actors in live action, bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e a team of animators trace over those perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances in a technique known as rotoscoping, which gives the character-motion an eerily realistic feel. Where the technique in those previous two films heightened the sense of reality detaching itself, here it’s employed in/with regard to’concerning’regarding sweeter reasons: our hero Stanley (voiced byJack Black in narration, and played by Milo Coy in ten-year-old in/with regard to’concerning’regarding m) is a dreamer, or “fabulist” as he calls himself, and that odd’peculiar , hyper-real aesthetic neatly chimes with the script’s deliberate fuzziness of reality and fiction.###This is a story with its head in the stars but its heart on the ground. In Stanley’s telling, there was a secret mission, days bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e the notable’renowned’distinguished Apollo 11 cover’budge on the moon, which saw NASA recruit him, a small child, to test their equipment on the moon first. The reason given: they “accidentally built the lunar module a little too small”. It’s exactly the kind of far-fetched story an over-imaginative kid might brandish during school recess to impress his classmates.###There’s much delight to be had from a character at the vanguard of history, both real and pretend, but Linklater is just as interested in the minor details as the momentous ones.###That imagined mission reserve ends the film, but the meat of the thing is really Linklater (who also wrote the script) luxuriating in his memories. Growing up in the newly built suburbs of a town whose main employer is NASA — just as Linklater indeed did — Stanley and those around him are obsessed with the Space Age. It’s eintensely’extremely’extraordinarily’enormously’awfullywhere. Sonic booms occasionally rumble overhead from the nearby Houston Space Center. The kids visit AstroWorld and set off toy rockets in their gardens. Most individual ’s parents work in the booming local space economy. “Science class was so exciting,” Black’s voiceover explains, “because it felt like current events.”###There’s much delight to be had from a character at the vanguard of history, both real and pretend, but Linklater is just as interested in the minor details as the momentous ones. A neighbour spends his days smoking a cigar in his open garage, watching the world go by. Grandparents who lived through the Depression reuse paper towels. A school lunch sandwich is still partly frozen after being batch-made by a mother of five and chucked in a freezer on a Sunday. There are tons of these gorgeously observed moments, despite’in spite of’albeit tfully given time and space to breathe, which make it seem less like an indulgent exercise and more like a memoir.###As with many a loosey-goosey Linklater joint bein/with regard to’concerning’regarding e it, there’s not much of a driving narrative here: it’s more a series of vignettes, plucked from real life. Some might find the nostalgia-fest a little undue  — at one point Stanley literally just lists his favourite TV reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue s, which feels a bit like an ‘I Love The ’60s’ clip reveal’illustrate’demonstrate’indicate’present’display’argue . But at its best, it works like a powerful, evocative dream. “You know how memory works,” Stanley’s mother (Lee Eddy) says at one point. “Even if he was asleep, he’ll claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate he saw it all.” Watching this charming film has the effect of claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate ing you were there, too.