Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts (2012) is a romantic comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM. Josh Radnor wrote, directed, and stars as Jesse, a 35-year-old college admissions counselor in New York who suspects his best years are already behind him.

A favorite professor invites Jesse back to campus for his retirement dinner, and the trip drops him right back into the place he was happiest. There he meets Zibby, a sophomore who loves books and classical music as fiercely as he does. The spark is instant; the sixteen-year age gap turns it into an awkward ethical puzzle neither of them can quite solve. Elizabeth Olsen plays Zibby with real bite, while Richard Jenkins grounds the film as the retiring teacher and Zac Efron pops up as an oddball campus sage.

This is a quiet movie for people who like talking about literature more than they like plot twists, and for anyone who has ever missed being a student. Radnor keeps it wry without ever sneering at his characters. Stream Liberal Arts (2012) online on iFILM.