Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts made me laugh out loud (and often), something that doesn't happen to me a lot while I watch a movie. Don't get me wrong, I love great comedy, but rarely do I laugh. For me, that would be enough to proclaim Liberal Arts a great movie. However, it also made me think. In fact, I think I will need a second viewing to process all of the ideas this movie has to offer.

Liberal Arts is about Jesse, an English major who found out the hard way that there are simply no good jobs in his field of expertise. Jesse works at a college admissions office. The film starts by showing us how bored he is with his life. Interview after interview he is shown asking routine questions in the same dull, monotonous manner until the last question, which he seems surprised to be asking. "You don't want to go to college?"

He thinks to himself, how could anyone not want to go to college? He has an idealized picture in his head of "college" being a time and place where young, free individuals get to read whatever they want, and talk for hours about matters ranging from philosophy to classical music to pop culture. This we find out a little later in the film when he visits his alma mater to attend an old professor's retirement party.

While there, he meets Zibby, a sophomore who shares the same enthusiasm about college. They start a relationship, not sexual, but truly romantic. Elizabeth Olsen plays Zibby. Olsen is a marvel, someone with exceeding beauty, incredible talent, and abounding joyful energy. Thanks to her,  Liberal Arts has been one of the most enjoyable experiences I've had at the movies this year. I was a little let down by the final 30 minutes of this movie, but only because it shifted focus away from her.

Jesse meets his mentor, a teacher he once admired, a student who sees college as a nightmare, and a young hippie who just seems be around to give advice and then disappear again. A series of conversations with them reshape the way Jesse sees life and send him back to his regular life a little wiser and a lot happier with an enthusiasm about life that he had about college.

This is a splendid movie directed and written by the likable Josh Radnor, also starring him as Jesse. Is he the next Zach Braff? maybe, but he has not yet made anything in the level of Garden State. Liberal Arts comes close though. They would make a great double feature.

Verdict- 3.5/4
Liberal Arts (2012) 1h 37min. It's unrated but should be PG-13. High school students will be able to appreciate it.