1. For its story on childhood

2. For its story on motherhood

3. For its story on fatherhood

4. The delicate stacking of these stories into the film’s central arc on aging.

5. The bang-on casting of the wonderful Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Ethan Hawke, and Lorilei Linklater

6. The timely reminder that everyone is winging it, irrespective of age, and the best signposts on the road-map to doing-your-best-parenting comes from your own child, not a parenting book.

7. The comforting hallmarks of Richard Linklater: posing more questions than answers; the pointlessness in searching for these answers, propped up by the human purpose to attempt it anyway; and the importance  of seeking out the right music in the quest to give the questions some meaning.