by Aaron Butts
The Drexel, the movie theatre across the street from Blackmore Library, has been a buzz recently over a new film called Liberal Arts. This film is written and directed by Josh Radnor, star of the hit television show How I Met Your Mother, and a Bexley native.
This is the second film that Radnor has directed, the first being Happythankyoumoreplease which premiered at the Drexel in 2010 with Radnor in attendance. Although his last movie was met with a lot of fanfare here in Bexley, his newest film is leaps and bounds over his previous work.
Liberal Arts was written, directed, and starred in by Radnor, who chose the setting of the film as Kenyon College, although it is not named that in the film. The storyline seems to be very reminiscent of Radnor’s time spent at his small liberal arts college, and this relationship makes the film all that more relatable to Capital students who may go to see it.
The film revolves around 35-year-old Jesse (played by Radnor), a pretentious man-child who is tired of his boring and mundane life working in the admissions office of a university in New York City. He returns to his alma mater, a small liberal arts university in rural Ohio, to celebrate a beloved professor’s retirement.
While visiting, he meets this fascinating 19-year-old girl named Zibby, played by Elizabeth Olsen. He strikes up a relationship with young Zibby and they become pen-pals, until both of them realize that they are becoming more and more romantically involved which becomes complicated as Jesse feels cautious due to the age gap.
The movie is a romantic-comedic-drama that is full of laughs starting with the opening montage. It is well written by Radnor, but the writing is only intensified by the amazing performances from a few very well-known actors such as Zac Efron (High School Musical), Richard Jenkins (Step Brothers), and Allison Janney (Juno).
Radnor’s performance is also great in this film. Fans of the TV show How I Met Your Mother may find his character of Jesse as very reminiscent of Radnor’s character “Ted.” Both Ted and Jesse seem to be similarly insecure Ohioans living in the big city of New York, both are not good with the ladies, and both seem to have levels of snobbishness such as Ted’s pronunciation of the word “encyclopedia,” and Jesse’s outburst at Zibby on what constitutes a good book as he criticizes her reading of the latest vampire romance novel.
The best performance of the film however, is done by Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) whose performance is brilliant and flirtatious in her interactions with Radnor. She makes her character Zibby a very relatable one to many college students who are struggling with romantic interests, roommates, parents, and those who are just trying to figure out who they are and what kind of person they want to be. She has wisdom beyond her years, and despite being considerably younger than Jesse, she ends up teaching him more life lessons that he teaches her.
A big part of the relationship between the two main characters in the film comes down to a question of love versus social norms, and if age really plays a huge roll in a relationship’s success. The answer to this question is a little muddled, where perception is everything. What the film is trying to tell its viewers is that it’s all about how young or how old you feel. And for Jesse, he feels old.
Returning to his old stomping grounds only makes him feel older, but also helps him better realize that his age doesn’t have to dictate his outlook on life. His old professor Dr. Hoberg (Jenkins) expresses this to him in the last half of the film, that although he had reached retirement age, he never got past feeling 19. He only succumbed to conformity and therefore eventually was forced into retirement and was forced to admit his age.
The film takes an accurately nostalgic look at a liberal arts education. So many aspects of this film might be relatable for Capital students. An example of this is a scene between Zibby and Jesse where she asks him what he majored in when he went to her school, to which Jesse replies: “I was English, with a minor in history, just to make sure that I was fully unemployable.”
The perspective of Jesse gives current students a look at the perspective of a nostalgic alum and adulthood, while Zibby gives a glimpse to alum what it was like to be young again.
The film is full of laughs, full of awkward romantic scenes, and full of questions about life and growing up. If nothing else, this film deserves to be associated with Radnor’s achievements alongside his role on How I Met Your Mother and is something that anybody who has ever attended a liberal arts university should see.
