Review of Liberal Arts (2012) by Alice S — 13 Nov 2013

Come on, Josh Radnor. You stripped away everything unique and heartwarming about "HappyThankYouMorePlease," leaving a pretentious, self-indulgent, third-life-crisis fantasy.

A 35-year-old admissions counselor (named "Jesse" of all things - that's not to knock all people named Jesse; it's just one of those hyper-cool Gen-X names that over-nostalgic writers throw in because they wish they'd been named Jesse) visits his alma mater and encounters a murder of college stereotypes: the mildly menacing, retirement-shy professor whom Jesse is called upon to honor; the GILF literature professor with whom he finally gets; the karate-chopping, Peruvian Hat-wearing (yes, that's what those knit hats with braided tassels are called) idiot savant (whom I was hoping would turn out to be a ghost); the suicidal wallflower with whom Jesse shares numerous veiled [insert suicidal author here] references; and of course, the Manic Pixie Dreamgirl, who is legitimately dreamy at first, owing to the portrayal by fresh-faced Elizabeth Olsen, but then grows uncharacteristically shrill and immature after Jesse spurns her advances.

All of these supporting characters serve to exalt Jesse, it seems. He may fuck up along the way, but his higher morals, or his heartfelt apology, or his heroic gesture saves the day and puts him on a pedestal. Jesse and Zibby's long distance letter-writing campaign is vague and bland due to the fact that they only write about classical music, and as Frank Zappa or Ted Mosby might say, "writing about music is like dancing about architecture," no matter how poetically waxed, which this really wasn't.

Honestly, the movie is just a bit too careful. Sam in "HTYMP" at least had an edge and owned his mistakes; Jesse is just too nice and not compelling.