I have to confess I was pretty skeptical about Linsey Stewart and Dane Clark’s film, Suze. From its outset, it sounded like yet another tired, derivative rehash built around a mother who is confronted with great change when her daughter leaves for university. Gradually, the film skids past any of this predictable, generic fatigue with its keen, tender, and deeply connected gaze on character growth and dynamics. The filmmakers craft a tale aglow with sincerity and sparkling emotion, carried by a central duo armed with immediate, winning chemistry.

Brooke ( Sara Waisglass) has a raging romance going on with Gage (Charles Gillespie), a drifter whose apparent lack of ambition and disinterest in anything resembling a career incurs the disfavor of her single mom, Suze ( Michaela Watkins). Suze advises her daughter to break up with Gage, reminding her they are people with entirely different trajectories and that continuing the relationship wouldn’t be a wise idea.