The latest feature from veteran indie writer-director Ingrid Veninger will seem familiar on its surface—or at least it will to readers of Mariko and Jillian Tamaki’s graphic novel This One Summer, which is also set in Ontario’s cottage country and likewise centres on the bond forged between two girls on the cusp of adolescence. The film takes on an added emotional layer when it becomes clear that Bea (Charlotte Salisbury) and Kate (Lucinda Armstrong Hall) are falling in (puppy) love with each other but don’t quite know what to do with those feelings. Aside from that, the stakes are relatively low (will Bea’s parents split up? Will Kate escape her own dysfunctional clan and come to Toronto with Bea’s?) but Porcupine Lake is carried on the shoulders of its young stars, who, with guilelessly natural performances, act circles around their more experienced costars.

Village 8, December 1 (5 p.m.); Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre, December 2 (3 p.m.)