Credits: screenplay: David Robert Mitchell; director of photography: James Laxton; editor: Julio Perez; music: Kyle Newmaster; sound: Zach Seivers, J.M. Davey; production design: Jeanine A. Nicholas; producer: Adele Romanski; production: roman spring pictures;

Country: USA

Year: 2009

Running time: 93

Colour: Colour

Format: HD CAM (HDTV)

For once, an American filmmaker who doesn’t go purely linear with his narrative, instead daring to - and succeeding in - interweaving the stories of four high school- and college-age youths in a Michigan town. Mitchell loosely structures the film like interlocked concentric circles (he has said his idea of narrative is more European than American), which pivot on four high school and college age teens in a cocooned suburban milieu. Several concurrent sleepovers take place the day before the fall term begins. Three of the protagonists’ problems revolve around crushes, definitely unrequited but promising. Mitchell doesn’t intrude, and only deploys “alternate” strategies, say slo-mo, when appropriate. Howard Feinstein