A really fun and pleasant movie that was never surprising and extremely fun, start-to-finish. This is a by-the-numbers bildungsroman — two teens, a cool girl next door, a deified older friend, hijinks — and you know exactly what plot points are going to get and they are delivered capably. The script is modern in a way that betrays its theoretical nineties setting (with apologies to the director, Adam Carter Rehmeier, but unless you were really ahead of your time I don't think the Juno-esque bon mots were really that autobiographical!) but is sold so convincingly and brightly by the pair of leads that you don't mind at all.

Does this movie have revelation? I'm not sure about that. Conor Sherry's performance — and his visceral sense of alienation — has a whiff of the sweet, relatable angst that I loved so much about The Secret History and even the first few bits of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Much of the center does not hold: Mika Abdalla's character is a little too vacuous and the final few beats are just so neatly wrapped that it's hard to really come away from the movie feeling like it's anything better than a more modern Sandlot (which is not that bad of a final analysis, to be clear!)

(More than anything, this movie reminded me of why I loved Everybody Wants Some!! so much: Linklater created a world that was warm and sweet and anodyne and had you exit that world in a way that felt novel.)

★★★★