During his mother's rehabilitation time, Nick moves to New York to stay with an old musician friend of his father's, named Cal. On his way to his school, Nick considers attempting suicide by jumping in front of an oncoming train but at the last minute, is spooked back. Upon arriving at school, he meets a girl named Eliza. After his first class, Nick is in the bathroom attempting to get high. Two guys walk in and befriend him named Seamus and Russell. He is then invited by them to a party. He is introduced to Skylar and Eliza again, after it is revealed that Eliza and Seamus are dating. At the party, Eliza and Nick bond over childhood memories and the piano. Meanwhile, Seamus receives a handjob from a random girl at the party. The next day, Seamus hints that he cheated on Eliza and tells Nick not to tell her. On a Friday night out, Russel buys illegal drugs from a black man standing in the street but calls the man the n-word. The man threatens Russell with a gun before leaving. At another party, Nick and his friends get high on the drugs that Russell bought. Seamus again cheats on Eliza as he gives another girl oral in the bathroom, which Nick walks in on. A drunk Lola takes Nick to the bedroom and makes out with him, but is interrupted by a group of boys who taunt Nick into fighting. Nick and his friends bring Lola home, and Eliza has sex with Nick. Cal tells Nick the next day that his mother is getting but then tells Nick about staying in New York. On a bus ride, Nick is overwhelmed with emotion seeing Seamus with Eliza, and attempts suicide again, but returns home vomiting and has an emotional breakdown with Cal. The next day at school, Seamus beats Nick for having sex with Eliza. Later that day, Eliza talks to Nick and the two part ways. At the farewell party, Seamus and Nick make peace, and Nick gives Seamus a book on French naughty words. Nick looks at Eliza for the final time.
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 78% based on reviews from nine critics, with an average rating of 8.5/10.[4] On Metacritic the film has a score of 63 based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[5]
Dennis Harvey of Variety wrote: "While the gist here is a familiar one of coming-of-age seriocomedy, Wolff avoids predictable beats, letting significant insights emerge almost incidentally rather than milking them for melodramatic effect."[6]
