Woody Harrelson also stars in Laura Chinn’s first feature as writer-director, inspired by her own family’s painful personal history.

There’s a core of authentically devastating family experience and personal investment that saves Suncoast from its unskilled handling, giving this grief drama, coming-of-age combo a heart to counter its predictability. Cynics too often roll their eyes while generalizing about the tired formula of the “Sundance movie,” but this one ticks all the boxes and even features an impossibly saintly character played by Woody Harrelson, who could have been conceived expressly for Park City audiences hungry for the prescribed dosage of funny-sad feels. On that elementary level, actor Laura Chinn’s first effort as writer-director gets by.

Every time you grow weary of the movie’s schematic plot mechanics, its clumsy attempts to cover too many bases, its aughts-era emo needle drops and its absence of visual interest, the raw hurt of the director’s experience comes through with a ray of redeeming sensitivity. Those moments are often marked by Este Haim and Christopher Stracey’s pretty score.

All that means Suncoast is by no means without merit. But Searchlight’s decision to shunt the film almost directly to Hulu — available from Feb. 9, following a week in select theaters — seems right and it will play just fine on the streaming service.

A high school senior with no friends, Doris has spent years caring for her brother at home while widowed Kristine works long waitressing shifts to cover the medical bills of her son, whose brain cancer has spread elsewhere in his body and his unresponsive neurological condition has remained unchanged for some time.

Given that her brother hasn’t spoken in years, Doris is convinced talking to him is pointless, but Kristine insists that love and communication and surroundings are vital to his quality of life for whatever time he has left. To that end, she moves him into a pleasant room at the Gulf Coast hospice that’s been in the news because of the uproar over Schiavo, whose husband and legal guardian is attempting to honor her wishes by taking her off life support, a decision vehemently opposed by her parents. This has necessitated additional security, with cops remaining stationed outside to control the protest crowd, all of which feeds Kristine’s justifiable irritability.

Since the script doesn’t trust the audience to get how the polarizing views around a controversial case might impact Doris’ feelings about her brother’s end-of-life treatment, schoolteacher Mr. Ladd (Matt Walsh, who deserves better) engages the class in an ethics debate. Meek and mousy Doris is paying attention, unlike shallow rich kids Laci (Daniella Taylor), Brittany (Ella Anderson) and Nate (Amarr), who occupy the desks nearest hers but seem unaware of her existence.

That changes when she overhears them complaining that a friend’s home has been eliminated as a “hurricane party” venue after his parents changed their mind about evacuating before a big storm in the Florida Keys. Doris pipes up to say they can have it at her house, prompting them instantly to adopt her.

There’s plenty of humor in the cluelessly patronizing comments of Doris’ new friends about coming into her “scary neighborhood.” After popping some synthetic party drugs, Brittany exclaims, “This house is so small, it’s like a dollhouse. It’s so beautiful!” But as fun as some of this stuff is, and as appealing as the actors are, it belongs in a different breed of teen movie.