With humor, heart and more than a bit of teen-movie raunchiness, “Sweethearts” succeeds in capturing that time in life when you’ve started college but are still trying to hold on to what you loved about high school.

For Kiernan Shipka’s Jamie and Nico Hiraga’s Ben — best pals who’ve gone off to a university together — those are their significant others, attachments they’re finding are weighing them down a couple of months into their new existences.

Debuting on Max on Thanksgiving Day, “Sweethearts” is a little gem from “Dollhouse” co-creator Jordan Weiss, its director and co-writer. After a strong — and very funny start — the film is a tad uneven, but it builds to an ending that rings true with what comes before it.

In the name of being true to football player Simon (Charlie Hall, “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story”) and aspiring singer Claire (Ava DeMary, “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin”), respectively, who are back home, Jamie and Ben aren’t going out and having fun — and facing temptations — during their freshman fall semester.

Jamie is rather cold to her perfectly passable roommate, while Ben’s roomie has planned a party Ben and Jamie learn about from their nerdy friend Luther (Subho Basu).

“Ben,” Jamie says, “we weren’t invited to a party in your room.”

“Yeah,” the glass-half-full Ben says, “but now we are.”

Modern conveniences such as video chat should make the long-distance thing easier than it was back in the day, but Simon’s football schedule means he wants to be virtually intimate with Jamie at odd times, while Claire calls, texts and FaceTimes Ben constantly. (Jamie decides to take his phone from him for an afternoon, and Ben has his first liberating time at college, just being off on his own for a few hours.)

“I mean,” Ben says, “we knew it would be like this when we decided to stay with Simon and Claire, but we made that call because we were in love … I guess?”

“Yeah,” Jamie says, sounding just as unsure as he does.

They form a plan: They’ll be back home in Ohio the night before Thanksgiving, at which time they’ll break up with Simon and Claire.

(Side note: It’s hilarious how often Jamie, Ben and other “Sweethearts” characters refer to “Ohio” — once “rural Ohio” and another time “middle-of-nowhere Ohio” but mostly just “Ohio” — as if the thought of looking up the name of an actual small Ohio town was just too much for Weiss and co-writer Dan Brier to bear.)

As they rehearse their breakups on a bus ride to (cough) Ohio, Ben starts to talk about the thawing of the permafrost, with Jamie saying he shouldn’t sound like a climate activist and Ben countering by saying that he’s trying to “contextualize it.” Neither relishes the task that lies ahead.

Back home, Jamie and Ben have a hard time finding their significant others. They’d charged their friend Palmer (Caleb Hearon, “Jurassic World Dominion”) — back home from a job in Paris — to keep them busy at a party he was throwing instead of letting them wander off to some other pre-holiday revelry.

Palmer, though, is more concerned with using his soiree as the vehicle for proudly coming out as gay to all his mean high school peers. Only problem: Aside from Simon and Claire, whom he all but drags to his house and then has trouble entertaining, nobody shows up.

“Sweethearts” is at its funniest early on, when Jamie and Ben are at school and the latter must deal with his aforementioned party-throwing roommate, Tyler (Zach Zucker). Tyler is inconsiderate (moving Ben’s stuff into the dorm hallway so there’s more room for folks at his party) but also good-natured (pulling Ben, after getting him to leave the dorm with him to attend another party, into a round of “40 Hands,” which sees two 40-ounce bottles of beer taped to their hands that can be removed only once they’re depleted).

With the action moved to Ohio, much of the emphasis turns to Palmer and his journey as a young gay man without all the answers. He finds guidance from an unexpected source, and this is “Sweethearts” at its sweetest.

The connected endeavors of Jamie and Ben remain in the forefront, however, as they eventually are accused of being codependent with one another and are given reason to wonder if, perhaps, they should give it a go romantically.

As it works its way to the answer to that question, “Sweethearts” is enjoyable largely because it’s so pleasant to spend time with Jamie and Ben, thanks largely to the efforts of Shipka (“Mad Men,” “Red One”) and Hiraga (“Booksmart,” “Moxie”).

Even if the laugh-out-loud moments dwindle, which is a bit disappointing, “Sweethearts” makes up for it in heart.

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‘SWEETHEARTS’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for sexual content, language throughout, teen partying and brief graphic nudity)

Running time: 1:37

How to watch: On Max Nov. 28

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