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Review: I Used to Go Here (2020), a Disjointed Trip Down Memory Lane

I used to go here (2020) movie

&NewLine;<p><em><strong>I Used to Go Here perfectly captures the small peculiarities of college life and the nostalgia of returning to one’s alma mater&semi; unfortunately&comma; uninspired characterization and unrelated subplots keep the film from hitting its mark&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Based on my travels&comma; I can say that the American college atmosphere is something that has not been captured anywhere else in the world&period; It’s something completely unique to the United States and is very difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t attended some form of college in the U&period;S&period; Sure&comma; you have all the lectures&comma; textbooks&comma; and the usual workload&semi; but you also have campus life&comma; fraternities&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;party culture&comma;” and competitive sports — all of which turn the entire experience into a kind of carnival&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However&comma; when you go back to your college campus after being gone for a while&comma; it can be a surreal experience&period; You suddenly feel old and out of touch with everyone around you&period; While some of your favorite things have stayed the same&comma; many have changed&period; It’s like a weird&comma; mirky reflection of a world you once knew and loved&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This is&comma; to one degree or another&comma; the feeling underlying Kris Swanberg’s <em>I Used to Go Here<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;&period; It captures this atmosphere perfectly&semi; you can see the idealistic students enjoying the best time of their lives &lpar;even though they may not realize it yet&rpar;&comma; while also seeing the bitter-sweet nostalgia of an alumnus coming back to visit&period; In this sense&comma; <em>I Used to Go Here<&sol;em> excels&period; I felt as if I were revisiting my own college years while watching it&period; Unfortunately&comma; the film quickly unravels because it simply doesn’t have a good enough plot to match its nostalgic vibe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>You can see the idealistic students enjoying the best time of their lives&comma; while also seeing the bitter-sweet nostalgia of an alumni coming back to visit&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h4>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film revolves around a newly-published author&comma; Kate &lpar;Gillian Jacobs&rpar;&comma; who returns to her alma mater to make a speech at the request of the school&period; Kate meets up with her former creative writing professor&comma; David &lpar;Jemaine Clement&rpar;&comma; who appears overjoyed at her return&period; We soon discover that the two have a questionable romantic history&comma; something that neither party is eager to bring up&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As Kate settles into her temporary housing&comma; she discovers that the house she used to live in sits right across the street&period; She quickly makes friends with the male students living there&period; Just as it was in her day&comma; the house functions as a kind of party pad and creative space for student writers&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film sidelines the plot surrounding her speech as Kate becomes entangled in the dramas of her new friends&period; Though she is initially indifferent to their difficulties&comma; she becomes increasingly invested when it appears that David may have found a new &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;protigee” in one of his top writing students&period; As Kate tries to wrap her head around her new friends and the skeletons in her own closet&comma; she also tries to make peace with the fact that she may not be the great American author that she always dreamed of becoming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>The film sidelines the plot surrounding her speech as Kate becomes entangled in the dramas of her new friends&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h4>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;04&sol;tumblr&lowbar;0039ad2c9c1729e364f4dae7f49a5c27&lowbar;ffe0f071&lowbar;1280-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"return to college movie" class&equals;"wp-image-2249"&sol;><figcaption><em>I Used to Go Here<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you feel as though I glossed over much of the plot&comma; you’re right&period; Once Kate arrives on campus&comma; the relatively straightforward story of a self-effacing writer delivering a speech at her former college turns into a complete mess&period; Rather than leaning into the dramatic elements of the story and playing with the psychology of nostalgia&comma; it reaches for jokes that never really deliver&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; the college decides to put Kate up in a local bed and breakfast&period; Naturally&comma; it happens to be located across the street from her old stomping grounds&period; To crank up the comedy&comma; the proprieter of the bed and breakfast is not a fan of Kate&period; Much like a nerdy freshman&comma; Kate has to wear her room key on a lanyerd around her neck&period; As you can imagine&comma; bad comedy ensues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To make matters worse&comma; <em>I Used to Go Here<&sol;em> does a very poor job of making us care about any of the tertiary characters&period; Kate is the center of the story&comma; which would be fine&comma; but we are made to see the world from her perspective&period; Thus&comma; we examine the things and people around her just as she does&period; Soon&comma; her plot feels so trivial that the filmmakers replace it with a myriad of subplots&period; Unfortunately&comma; none of those subplots involve people who we have any reason to root for or against&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h4 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>To make matters worse&comma; I Used to Go Here does a very poor job of making us care about any of the tertiary characters&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h4>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;04&sol;i-used-to-go-here-movie-review-1024x577&period;jpg" alt&equals;"I Used to Go Here college movie" class&equals;"wp-image-2250"&sol;><figcaption><em>I Used to Go Here<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>One of the guys living across the street has girlfriend problems&comma; while another finds himself attracted to his best friend’s mom&period; Also&comma; there’s a perky&comma; energetic man who drives Kate around everywhere and even takes part in her late-night spying operation with the rest of the gang&period; Again&comma; bad comedy ensues&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To be completely frank&comma; I chose to watch this film because I’m a fan of both Gillian Jacobs and Jemaine Clement&period; Jacobs plays a variation of her standard character&period; She is the quirky&comma; cynical young woman who is plagued by imposter syndrome &lpar;fans of Community or Love will notice the similarities&rpar;&period; Alternatively&comma; Clement does a lackluster job as the womanizing professor&period; His characterization is peculiar because he is clearly in the wrong&comma; but we are never really compelled to make him face any consequences&period; I think Jemaine Clement is just not that good at being the bad guy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In closing&comma; Kris Swanberg’s <em>I Used to Go Here<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar; functions as a nostalgic trip down memory lane for anyone familiar with American campus life&period; However&comma; once you move beyond the relatable atmosphere&comma; none of the other pieces work well together&period; The writing is shallow&comma; the jokes are mediocre at best&comma; and the plot goes off in too many uninteresting directions&period; This is the kind of film that you’ll likely watch and&comma; in a few years&comma; completely forget — much like that one friend you made freshman year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>I Used to Go Here<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar; Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>I Used to Go Here<&sol;em> &lpar;2020&rpar;&comma; the film is currently available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B08DKQRC8K&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B08DKQRC8K&amp&semi;linkId&equals;fc5102628a0c4533e24fab50e9a8b8be">stream&comma; rent&comma; or purchase via Amazon<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film<&sol;a> homepage&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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