The year's best movie is finally in Cd'A

It isn't enough for me to tell you "Boyhood" is the best movie of 2014. I'll hit you with the hard numbers:

* 99 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes

* 100 percent rating on Metacritic - that's the aggregate review site with weighted review scores, which means it's much harder to earn a high score than on the fresh/rotten scale at Rotten Tomatoes

* 8.8 user score on the Internet Movie Database (the highest ranking movie on the site has a 9.2).

* Box office: Just under $19 million. "Trans4mahs," on the other hand, made more than a billion dollars in worldwide box office.

That last statistic is deplorable, but we here in North Idaho can't blame ourselves. "Boyhood" never opened in Coeur d'Alene this summer. Sure, you could have driven 30 miles to see the film in Spokane, but you shouldn't have to deal with those stoners across the state line. This is America, and in America, we don't go to the entertainment. The entertainment should come to us.

Well, the programmers at Coeur d'Alene's Riverstone Cinemas have finally made room for "Boyhood." The film is scheduled to open today, and there isn't any good reason why the film can't make an additional $981 million from North Idaho alone.

Much of the attention surrounding "Boyhood" has focused on its concept. Writer/director Richard Linklater (the "Before" trilogy that culminated with last year's superb "Before Midnight") cast 7-year-old Ellar Coltrane and his own daughter (Lorelei Linklater) to play the children of estranged parents played by Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke. The film follows Coltrane from first through 12th grade, with the production shooting for a couple weeks each summer for 12 years.

Coltrane plays the boy, Mason, through a series of typical coming-of-age situations, though the film finds clever ways to sidestep the kind of dramatics you often see in the genre. Mason experiences bullies, drugs, drunken step-parents, first loves and breakups, but the movie hinges on smaller moments, like the things said about "Star Wars" on a father-son camping trip, or the awkward pep talk from your boss at a part-time job.

Coltrane isn't an acting prodigy - he's natural, low-key and introspective, especially as the mopey teenager version of Mason later in the film. One of the film's best scenes focuses on a big, tearful moment for Mason's mom, but Mason himself can do nothing but stare awkwardly at his mom's despair. Yet, we as the audience know it's a defining moment in Mason's life, and the film promptly moves forward without lingering on Arquette's performance.

This is an entire film of small moments that build to something almost transcendent. Watching these actors age naturally on screen, in these specifically cultivated moments, builds to a powerful emotional wallop. "Boyhood" plays for two hours and 45 minutes, but it feels like you've known Mason for 12 years.

That's not the work of a film with just a clever concept. Linklater has pruned this project for more than a decade, growing as a filmmaker and storyteller in the process. The result is his masterpiece - a film unlike anything that's come before.

I struggled with whether I should even write about this movie. Other, better critics have said plenty of insightful things about it this summer, and, really, my reaction to it comes from a more personal space. I think parents especially will be hit with a lot of emotion watching "Boyhood." I couldn't help thinking about my kids in almost every scene, and my kids are still a few years away from first grade.

I'm fearful this article will entice someone to see "Boyhood" who will come out hating it. As much as I can respect dissenting opinions, I don't think I want to know that person. I'm too close to "Boyhood." It's a movie that affirms my love of the art form, and one that I'll revisit as often as my other personal classics.

In fact, for (likely) one week only at Riverstone, you can see a double feature of "Boyhood" and the 30th anniversary rerelease of "Ghostbusters." Everything you need to know about me as a moviegoer is in that combination.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.