It remembers a summer that was not a happy summer, but there will never again be a summer so intensely felt, so alive, so valuable."[5] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader gave the film a favorable review, writing "You have to bring a lot of yourself to this film if you want it to give something back, but the rewards are considerable."[6] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle called it "a director's baby from the opening frames" and "not like any other movie. That, in itself, makes it something to see. Writer-director David Gordon Green, in his feature debut, has created a visually and emotionally consistent universe."[7] Rolling Stone's Peter Travers called David Gordon Green "a writer and director of rare grace and feeling", whose directorial debut is of "startling originality that will haunt you for a good, long time."[8]