I just finished it. It's good, I really enjoyed it. I agree with your assessment regarding cynicism. For some reason films must be cynical in order to be taken seriously by critics. I would have no problem recommending this film to people. It's good. Very good when you consider its his first film. -that's just nuts. I will say that at times, visually, its derivative of Wes Anderson but i dig Anderson so that's fine by me. Wes wasn't the first to use slow motion walking scenes I'm sure, or the cut to close up. But it was most obvious to me in the scenes with the record player. -Very Margot Tenenbaum. I enjoyed the story line, I loved the whimsy and I thought that several of the performances were extremely good. The lead performance by Kyle Gallner was great and I thought that Keegan Peal stole the show. It's a creative script. I give it 4.5/5 -damn good for his freshman effort. The music was cool too. That first scene with the button. -Damn. So well acted and visually so great. I rented it on Amazon. Go watch it people. That Hubski t-shirt has a sizeable presence.