Exit 117

Running time: 88 mins

With adulthood just around the corner, a group of New Jersey adolescents deal with their last summer together in their own unique, unpredictable ways. Some of them, like Brian, prefer to start anew by severing old relationships. Others, like Tommy and Melissa, try to ease their way into the future while hanging on to their teenage aspirations. While small-city life is ideal for Grady and Janine, who dream of growing older together in the suburbs, it is a dead-end for Matt and Sammy, who can hardly wait to leave for more adventurous places.

Out of these various relationships, each staged by writer-director Kevin James McMullin as a series of funny and melancholy duets, emerges a lovely mosaic of transitory yearning. The winner of the 2009 Flesch Screenwriting Award, this affectionate comedy-drama is worthy of comparison to the loose-limbed studies of Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused).

? Fernando Croce

New Visions Program made possible by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences