It's 1979 on Long Island, New York, and rampant fear has spread through the suburban communities thanks to an outbreak of Lyme disease which is spread by deer ticks. Scott (Rory Culkin) is a sensitive 15 year old whose best friend is his next-door neighbor Adrianna Bragg (Emma Roberts). They have known each other for years, and he is very devoted to her. Both of these teenagers are troubled by the behavior of their parents. Adrianna's father Charlie (Timothy Hutton) has been laid up with Lyme disease and is growing more and more restless and agitated. His wife Melissa (Cynthia Nixon), a real estate agent, is having an affair with Scott's father Mickey (Alec Baldwin), a real estate developer with grandiose plans for the future. When Brenda (Jill Hennessy) finds out about her husband's adultery she kicks him out. Meanwhile, their oldest son Jim (Kieran Culkin) is in the Army; while on leave, he pulverizes a bully who beat up his brother in front of Adrianna.
Writer and director Derick Martini has made a coming-of-age drama that worms its way into our consciousness and harvests our old memories of first sex, family arguments, school bullies, and the hard to decipher changes that accompany a longtime friend of the opposite sex becoming a lover. The ensemble cast is a total delight to watch as they convey the dark side of suburbia where troubles and tensions lie behind glazed smiles and beautifully decorated homes. Upward mobility aims at happiness but oftentimes only results in cravings that can never be satisfied. Scott manages to grab hold of a few precious moments of joy in his coming-of-age but they do not last very long.
