Liberal Arts: The Lost Art of Simplicity

Simplicity: something the film industry has exploited. Movies now jam-pack the plots, the characters, the under-lying ironic messages…it’s mental overload. You spend the drive home trying to fill plot holes, instead of feeling the holes, the questions they leave on purpose.

Josh Radnor, who wrote, directed and starred in this sophomore cinema effort, finds the bliss in keeping the story simple. This allows for a truly lovely education in Liberal Arts.

There’s something whimsical about being in college. As Radnor’s character Jesse describes, “You can walk in a room and say you’re a poet and no one will punch you in the face.” After traveling back to visit his 2^nd favorite professor, Peter Hoberg (Richard Jenkins), Jesse is reminded what was so important about his years in school. This enlightenment comes unexpectedly in the form of a 19-yr old student Zibby, played by the always-enchanting Elizabeth Olsen.

After only one cup of coffee and a few strolls around campus, Jesse and Zibby find they have a surprising amount in common. Oh, and he’s utterly smitten by her. She’s young, pink-cheeked and what? Can it be?! Intelligent! As she tells Jesse, “It’s not that you’re stunted, I’m just advanced.”

Their relationship is familiar. Those strange romances that form after only a few moments together aren’t common, but we all know them well. If we haven’t experienced them personally, we hope that someday we will. That’s Jesse and Zibby. They’re classical-music-nerd pen pals who bond through their Wagner-Mozart-Opera love. But things get sticky when Jesse is forced to confront their age difference: 16 years.

When he was 19, she was 3.

There’s nothing extraordinary about the story here that Radnor is trying to accomplish. If he walked into a room at CAA and pitched the film, I doubt any heads would whirl. But that’s not the point. Radnor is speaking from a place of experience, where the characters are touchable and tangible and you feel like you’ve met them before. And the issues they overcome hit close to any home.

When Jesse returns to visit Zibby, he’s perplexed by the wisdom he gains from people his junior. A mysterious hippie boy Nat (Zac Efron), whom he questions, “Do you actually exist?” befriends Jesse. During a night laying out on the campus lawn, Nat tells Jesse the story of how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly. Jesse listens, amazed at how such a transformation can occur in such a tiny creature. For the first time, he believes that “Everything will be ok.” The care-free naivety and the hunger to learn and live that he witnesses in both Zibby and Nat, gives him hope that it’s never too late to change.

It’s something every adult struggles with. College is all about change and growth. Adulthood? Not so much. The film poses the thought: sometimes you have to move back to move forwards again.

Sadly, Liberal Arts may get lost in the fall season of big blockbusters, as those sweet Sundance indies often do. But there’s a seed of something here. Radnor may be a little snobby with his literature and musical references, as the character Elizabeth points out in the character of Jesse (Radnor seems to be pointing a finger at himself on purpose), but he’s perceptive. He trusts his characters and ideas enough not to sacrifice them for shock value or a complicated, complex plot. He’s simple and because of that there’s looking to be plenty more good work in his future. He’s only a sophomore after all.