Liberal Arts

The new indie flick written and directed by How I Met Your Mother's Josh Radnor (happythankyoumoreplease), centers on Jesse (Radnor), a thirtysomething who just hasn't found himself in New York City, where he moved after graduating from Kenyon College. He's got so little going on, in fact, that when his college professor (Richard Jenkins) invites him to attend his retirement dinner back at Kenyon College, he takes him up on the offer without even having to check his schedule. While at Kenyon, Jesse meets Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), an attractive young theater student who has a deep appreciation for improvisation and classical music. Impressed by her old-fashioned values (she refers to him as her "gentleman caller"), he's somewhat smitten despite the years separating them. There's some awkwardness to their initial attempts to connect, and they argue over the artistic merit of teen vampire stories. It's all a little precious, and the fact that the characters' slow-moving journeys to self-awareness and maturity are littered with literary references and underdeveloped characters doesn't help matters.