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.
Man, I have to learn to not read reviews. They really hate this movie. Indiewire basically called it the worst movie ever made, while NYT and LA times were kinder but still negative. I didn't have anything to do with the making of the film, but it's still hurtful to read that shit. It shouldn't matter, but I can't help it.
I have not read any reviews, but I will now just to check them out. I definitely have some issues with the film but most of them are stylistic and not super negative. For me the positives outweighed the negatives substantially. Literally, I found t to be a positive movie. I loved the message. I thought the performances were great with the exception of one, which I'll gladly discuss w you in person. Overall, I'd give it a B+. I'm no critic but I love art and film and I love and know music. It's good.