Quiet, sensitive Jake meets brash but affable Tony at his grandfather’s funeral and the charming odd couple become inseparable best friends during their school vacation.
Their new bond is tested, though, when Jake’s parents – portrayed by Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine) and Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty) – become embroiled in a battle over a dress shop lease with Tony’s mother (Paulina Garcia – Gloria).
Anchored by wonderfully natural performances from its two young leads (Michael Barbieri and Theo Taplitz), Ira Sachs’ much anticipated follow-up to his acclaimed Love Is Strange (2014) has premiered to excellent early reviews at Sundance.
It’s a similarly understated, profoundly humane story; a tale of platonic love and the difficulty of maintaining childhood innocence amidst adult troubles, investigating the social divides of race, class and culture.