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Liberal Arts | 2012 | PG-13 | - 5.3.4

A 30-something man (Josh Radnor) finds an unlikely companion in a young undergrad (Elizabeth Olsen) after he returns to his Alma Mater for the retirement of his favorite professor. Also with Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney, Elizabeth Reaser and John Magaro. Directed by Josh Radnor. [1:37]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - We hear a woman and a man moaning sexually and seconds later we see the lights turn on and it is implied that a man and an older woman just had sex; the woman kicks the man out of bed, saying that she does not "want to cuddle" (we see the man's bare chest and back when he stands up) and the two have a brief conversation about the earlier sex with the man, referring to the older woman's cigarette as "post-coital."
 A young woman tells a man that she would like to kiss him on the face and we see her kissing his chin and forehead; the two then kiss passionately. A man and a woman kiss.
 A young woman tells a man that they should hug and we see them hugging. We see a young man and a young woman hugging in the background. A young woman leaps into a man's arms, wrapping her legs around his chest as they hug. A man and a woman walk arm-in-arm.
 A young woman invites a man to stay overnight in her dorm room, she then implies that they would be having sex and it would be her first time; the man reacts with surprise and tells the young woman that he cannot stay, that "sex is complicated" and he leaves immediately. In a letter a young woman asks a man to be her "gentleman caller."
 An older woman crudely tells a man that an old poet had put his male genitalia "in everything." A young woman teases a man, saying that her mother has a crush on him and she then adds that the man "looks good." An older man jokes, saying his daughter is a member of a funny but "filthy" improv group.

VIOLENCE/GORE 3 - A young man calls a man, saying that he had "taken a lot of pills," we hear a siren and see the man and a doctor running down a hallway and moments later we see the man next to the young man in a hospital room where the young man is recovering from a suicide attempt.
 A man shouts at another man, chasing him down a city block after he realizes the man had stolen his laundry. An older man shouts at a man. A young woman shouts at a man, crying, and she then shouts at the man to get out of her room. A man dramatically plunks his head against a desk. A young man performs a ritual on another man where he shouts at the man's forehead and then pounds on the man's chest as he chants loudly.
 A young woman tells a man that a young man had been hospitalized after a manic episode the previous year. A young man tells a man that he had been hospitalized after he "lost his mind a bit" and is now on medication that makes him feel underwater. A man tells a young man that he needs to stop idolizing an author who had killed himself because the young man should aspire to "die old." A young man tells a man that due to human's excessive consumption of preservatives, people's bodies are taking longer to decompose. An older man jokes with a man that he would "throw himself off" a nine story building if he did not leave town. A man jokes that an older man had said that he would turn into a "pillar of salt." A man jokes that no one will punch a person in the face for saying that they're a poet. A woman tells a man that he should punch someone in the face. A young man tells a man that he is "aggressively unhappy" in college. A man jokes with a young man that a party is not "drunk guys with pitchforks." An older woman sarcastically tells a man to put a suit of armor around his "gooey little heart." An older man tells a man that he feels like a recently released prisoner who continues to commit crimes so he can go back to jail.
 A young woman tells a man that she had thrown up, saying "that's gross."

LANGUAGE 4 - 2 obscene hand gestures, 5 sexual references, 1 scatological term, 1 anatomical term, 7 mild obscenities, name-calling (putz, snobby, suckers, snob, a little stunted, real jerk, jerk, not half the liar you used to be, man-boy, miserable men, bone-headed), 3 religious profanities, 7 religious exclamations.

SUBSTANCE USE - An older woman tells a man that she is going to take a sleeping pill. On two occasions we see a group of undergrads at a party drinking beer (we can assume at least half of them are under 21), we see a young woman drinking multiple cups of beer and then acting intoxicated, a young woman asks a man if she smells like beer (she looks hung over) to which he smells her arm until she stands up and rushes away and on her return she tells him that she had thrown up, a young man tells a man that drinking is "for suckers," we see men and women drinking wine and two men drinking liquor at a bar, and a man and an older woman drink liquor at a bar. We see an older woman smoking a cigarette until a man makes a remark about it and she teases him for quitting smoking, a young man smokes a cigarette and he tells a man that he knows it is bad, and a man says that he can quit smoking when he graduates like everyone else (implying that he had also smoked when younger).

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Romanticizing youth, going back to college, regret, suicide, depression, trying to relive the past, hyperbole.

MESSAGE - College can be a very influential part of life.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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