Elliott whizzes from montage to sight gag to flashbacks and flash-forwards, skittering sideways for frequent discursions about the family pets, or a disastrous incident with a beach umbrella.

This is a movie that had an immediate effect on me and my co-viewer. We talked about it for hours. It's still on my mind.

The trouble starts when things get half-serious. The half bit is the problem.

It's a full-throttle 90 minutes of sensory overload on '70s interiors and heinous fashion, but there's also an undercurrent of just how hard it can be for teenagers to push away from parents and find their own identity.