A sunny movie with heartbreaking family drama.

Coming of age stories have their own rules. They have their conflicts, life lessons, and behaviors that are based on different generations. But they also have their pathos, which certain movie goers can relate to, or at least sympathize them. “Suncoast” is inspired by first time director Laura Chin’s experiences, and even if the movie has some flaws, there are still some truthful elements that make the movie worthy of your time.

Doris (Nico Parker from “Dumbo”) is a Florida teen in the early 2000s whose mother Kristine (Laura Linney) is overworked and overbearing, whose brother Max (Cree Kawa) is dying of brain cancer. He can’t speak and he can’t do anything by himself anymore. In fact, at this point in her life, she would rather have her mother being the dying one.

In the meantime, her brother is placed in the Suncoast nursing home, where a protest is taking place and Kristine spends most of her nights there. Sleeping over with her son to be exact. That means Doris would be home alone, that means she can let her classmates (Ella Anderson, Daniela Taylor, and Ariel Martin) use her house for house parties, and that means she can hang out with those cool girls. And that means the relationship with her mother gets tested in the mothers and teens formula. The kind when she finds out about her parties and booze.

She also makes friends with the widower and activist Paul (Woody Harrelson), who tries to be her voice of reasoning, regarding her estranged relationship with her mom and whatever time she has left with her brother. She wants to be a normal teenager, but he tells her: “You’re not normal. You’re different.”

Watching this virtually from the Sundance Film Festival has me seeing something interesting in the direction of the main heroine, while acknowledging her troubles within her family. When looking at them, they can be funny or sad, and when you examine them, you understand what Chin is trying to convey.

Yes, the mother-daughter conflicts get exhausting, especially a scene when the mom violates her daughter’s right to free speech. But it can also be honest and emotionally packed, the more we spend time with these characters, especially with Parker’s performance and the philosophy from the Harrelson character. I would like to compare this movie with “The Edge of Seventeen,” which also featured an arguing mother and daughter and Harrelson in a similar role, and both of them have their hearts in the right places. It’s about the pathos that threatens their relationship, and how they can overcome them.

“Suncoast” takes place in Florida, but was actually filmed in Charleston, South Carolina, which has been one of my favorite vacation spots for the past five years. They’re both in the south, and have warm weather at the right time of the year, so it would make sense. Or maybe it’s my love for South Carolina talking.

But even if the movie was really made in Florida, there’s still something likable about it. I’ll still be irritated by the mother-daughter conflict I mentioned, but I’ll still know there’s an emotional side to it that’s quite valid. Besides, we have good old Woody Harrelson to back her up. Sit through the whole movie, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

In Select Theaters This Friday

Streaming on Hulu Next Week.