 Pick of the week: “The Way, Way Back” is a wistful summer escape The new indie comedy gets adolescence and adulthood just right 
 
 There’s nothing strikingly new or different about “The Way, Way Back,” which is a sweet-natured teenage coming-of-age story set in a beach town on Cape Cod. But the directing debut of actors-turned-filmmakers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash (who previously co-wrote the screenplay for Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants”) is beautifully executed, loaded with sharp observational moments, and never cheats either its characters or its audience by descending into raunchy teen-movie cliché. As Duncan’s mom, Pam, Toni Collette doesn’t get all that much screen time, but she makes every second pay off with a brilliant, understated performance as a once-burned divorced mom who’s hoping for the best but afraid of the worst. While Pam and Trent work on their possibly collapsing relationship and drink way too much with Kip (Rob Corddry) and the suspiciously friendly Joan (Amanda Peet, in full-on home-wrecker danger-girl mode), Allison Janney nearly steals the entire film as Betty, the boozy, horny, blue-eyeshadow lady next door. I almost wanted the whole movie to be about her! PHOTOS: Billion-dollar movie club 
 
 Kid paradise, or something close, is the Water Wizz Water Park, one of those local spots that give small-town life its charm. (Faxon and Rash, both TV comedy veterans, give themselves funny sidekick roles at Water Wizz.)
– The coming-of-age indie flick The Way, Way Back has been compared to Little Miss Sunshine and Adventureland. Starring Steve Carell, Allison Janney, and Toni Collette, it's certainly got the acting chops to make it a hit—but is it a hit with critics? The consensus is yes, even though it doesn't offer viewers anything new. It's expected but charming, with a few laughs thrown in the mix, too. "The film is awash in safe choices, from indie-pop-accompanied montages to sitcom one-liners and black-and-white characters," Liam Lacey writes at the Globe and Mail. Though he compares the plot to that of Little Miss Sunshine, he argues The Way, Way Back is "way underdeveloped." Betsy Sharkey at the LA Times appears to have been watching a different film entirely. She says the flick has a "witty, heartwarming, hopeful, sentimental, searing, and relatable edge." Though she admits it's a "fairly straightforward story of coming of age in a time of divorce," the writers "make it feel fresh." It's a "minor pleasure," as opposed to a "major work," concedes Ty Burr at the Boston Globe. But isn't that nice during the summer? "This one goes down like a popsicle on a hot day," even as it moves along "genially if not always freshly." Sure, "there's nothing strikingly new or different about The Way, Way Back," writes Andrew O'Hehir on Salon. "It's classic summer counter-programming, a low-tech indie comedy driven by its strong cast and eccentric characters." But it's done well, and it stays away from "raunchy teen-movie cliché" territory. O'Hehir liked the film enough to make it Salon's "pick of the week."