The latest from gonzo Estonian-Spanish auteur Miguel Llansó is a win for the socially maladroit, awkwardly codependent girlies. In Infinite Summer, Mia (Teele Kaljuvee-O’Brock) is a girl on the precipice of great change. Too smart for her party girl friends, she nonetheless desperately hangs on to them, routinely making concessions for them. They don’t speak Estonian, so Mia speaks English. They commandeer the bathroom, so Mia – literally – goes outside. And they talk over her, so Mia silently lets them drone on.

Frustrated and slightly bored, Mia matches with a weirdo named Dr. Mindfulness (Ciaron Davies) on a dating app. In turn, Mindfulness introduces Mia and her friends to a body altering chemical that slowly changes its users. Unlike her friends, Mia struggles to access the deeper levels of the high. She ain’t open to it yet, too fearful of losing what is already slipping away from her.

Like most of Llansó work, Infinite Summer falls apart in its second act. In true Llansó form, the film goes off the rails pretty quick, becomes narratively difficult to parse. As the film gets bigger, and starts to unravel a deeper conspiracy, the cogency of its themes starts to falter. In that sense, the film is strangely Southland Tales coded: a partial meditation on the impacts of media on us.

I like when this stays small more than when it goes big, when it stays within the realm of recognizing how human connection is something we’ll chase to our detriment. When I can tell how much effort has gone into finding ways to explain who Mia is – and why she is the way she is – I’m pretty psyched about Infinite Summer.