The stakes are low throughout the film - even the bullies are mostly bluster - making the big finish an anticlimax.

[Tully achieves] a winning innocence of spirit in which performances and production design are all perfectly synched to his low-key comic vision.

It's so dedicated to the odd textures of its world that it becomes something else - personal, abstract, and strangely honest.

In the future, Tully ought use nostalgia as a tool, not a crutch. Here though, he's nostalgia crutching so hard that it's no wonder the film can hardly stand on its own two feet.