Breakfast With Curtis

GFT, February 16, 5.20pm; CCA, February 19, 7pm

LAURA Colella plays the indie card in spades with this mellow, warm-hearted tale inspired by her own neighbourhood in Rhode Island. Looking like a bedraggled Neil Young, with a glass of red wine always at hand, online bookseller Syd (Theo Green) asks Curtis (Jonah Parker), the introverted 14-year-old next door, to help him make some rambling video blogs. Somehow this small act becomes the catalyst for thawing out relations between the inhabitants of Syd's "Purple Citadel" and Curtis's hypocritically uptight parents. Colella focuses on people, not plot, keeping the style loose but the setting theatrically tight, as the camera rarely strays from the three storeys of Syd's bohemian household and Curtis's middle-class home. At times it's a bit like a reality show about the kind of people who might, in more exaggerated fashion, populate a Wes Anderson movie. Although the eccentric figure of Green gives the film its distinctively laid-back personality, this is a true ensemble piece that perfectly captures the easy magic of friendship and the joy of simply hanging out.

Alan Morrison