If you’ve considered seeing Boyhood, please don’t miss this piece of cinematic art. Pushing the boundaries of what we call ‘commitment to the craft,’ this movie is that one possible summer sleeper Academy Award nominee I can only hope I get the pleasure to watch again in January or February once the nominees are announced.

I saw Boyhood as an advance screening, after murmurs in the movie realms told me this was one to not miss. Right these murmurs were, since I generally enjoyed all of the previous Richard Linklater films I’ve seen (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight). I was only slightly put off by seeing Ethan Hawke on screen, since his presence felt like the only ‘movie star’ in the whole movie, but the rest of the cast more than meshed enough to make the relationships between the characters believable. In fact, the 12-year creation process of this movie is something of a miracle: all of the actors were retained, their relationships developed organically, and Linklater’s characteristic true-to-life dialogue felt as natural as it would were we watching our extended family’s home movies.

I have nothing but glowing things to say about Boyhood, really. The only thing I can bemoan is its limited release—it will be hard to find if you’re not in a major metropolitan area, and even then you’ll probably have to drive a bit to find a theater screening it. Trust me, it’s worth the time you’ll put into hunting to find this gem in theaters, but I’m fan enough to say that it’s worth a rental and showing on your device-of-choice. If you want life captured on film, Boyhood is that movie.

Photo Credit: New York Post, Linklater scores at Sundance with ‘Boyhood’