If Boyhood doesn’t win Best Picture tomorrow, I will be really disappointed. I know, it’s just an award and awards don’t matter. But the Academy Award for Best Picture sets the tone of what makes a film great.

“Boyhood” is the reason film isn’t a dying art. “Boyhood” is the epitome of what films can do that no other medium can. You go into that film looking at life one way, and you leave having new perspective. It is an emotional movie about life and growing up and is universal in a way that so few films are.

For instance, there is a scene towards the end of the movie where the titular boy, Mason, is leaving home for college and his mom (played by future Academy Award Winner Patricia Arquette) speaks about how time passes you by. I watched this movie with my family and my mom started to cry, while my younger sister and I started laughing. There is no other scene I can think of that felt as real and truthful.

Sure it’s not the best crafted movie ever. It’s not the best shot, Ellar Coltrane isn’t the greatest actor and there isn’t even a score. But it doesn’t matter. The film is just that moving. I love some of the other nominees. Birdman is maybe the most ambitious films in years and Whiplash is one of the best scripts, but Boyhood is why I go to the movies.

I want movies to affect me, and I think about scenes in Boyhood constantly since I watched it months ago. Just watch this trailer and tell me you don’t get slightly teary eyed.