A film about paternity whose own lineage can be directly traced to Little Miss Sunshine and Wes Anderson’s idiosyncratic dramedies, this indie about a ten-year-old test-tube-baby genius (Jason Spevack) searching for his biological pops is as precious as its prepubescent protagonist is precocious. Bring on the dysfunctional family dynamics: The boy is a know-it-all, Mom (Toni Collette) is a tragedy-stricken feminist, the professor-author who’s possibly his father (Michael Sheen) is a mess, and his half sister (Samantha Weinstein) is a brooding hater. Why anyone would want to spend time with a foursome whose bathetic misery is, like the overly mannered visuals of writer-director Dennis Lee (Fireflies in the Garden), defined by such insufferable quirkiness is anyone’s guess.
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