Starring Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, and Moises Arias. Rating not available.

The Kings of Summer, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts from a screenplay by Chris Galletta, is one of the smartest movies I’ve seen all year. To get a sense of the film, it helps to imagine a hip cross between Stand By Me and a screen version of The Catcher in the Rye. Marketed as a teen comedy, its emotional complexity and bone-dry humour play like a dry martini sipped under a starry sky.

The plot is simple enough. Three teenage males decide to free themselves from parental constraints by disappearing into the woods. Their plan? Build a house in the wilderness and live off the land. The ringleader is young Joe (Nick Robinson), a dreamer with untapped potential who is chafing under the caustic reign of his widowed dad (Nick Offerman).

Joe is joined in his quest by his best friend, Patrick (Gabriel Basso), a sensitive kid whose blithely condescending parents (Marc Evan Jackson and Megan Mullally) are giving him a textbook case of hives. Their loopy version of the Three Musketeers is completed by Biaggio (Moises Arias), a seriously weird nerd hungry for friendship.

As it turns out, there’s more to the ragtag trio than meets the eye. They actually manage to construct a reasonably serviceable dwelling, something between a squatter’s shack and a rundown summer cabin. (Ironically, their design is clearly modelled on the suburban bungalows they’re so eager to escape.) Everything goes surprisingly well until Joe decides to throw a dinner party and invites his high-school crush, Kelly (Erin Moriarty). When things don’t go as planned, everybody is forced to take a closer look at themselves.

What ultimately emerges is a subtle, big-hearted movie that cleverly manages to avoid all the shabby stereotypes of the teen genre. Wise, sentimental, and loaded with charm, it’s a must-see for the summer.