Liberal Arts

Jesse Fisher is a 35-year-old admissions officer who feels stuck in his job and recently single life, convinced his best years are behind him. When his favourite college professor, Peter Hoberg, invites him back to his old Ohio campus for a retirement dinner, Jesse returns to a place that once felt full of possibility. There he meets Zibby, a 19-year-old theatre student, and the two are drawn together by their shared love of books and music. The age gap between them raises doubts about whether the relationship can work, even as Jesse is pulled back into campus life and forced to reconsider where he is heading.

Josh Radnor directs from his own screenplay and stars as Jesse, with Elizabeth Olsen as Zibby. Richard Jenkins plays Professor Hoberg, and the supporting cast includes John Magaro, Zac Efron and Allison Janney. The film was produced by Radnor with Claude and Brice Dal Farra.

Released in September 2012, Liberal Arts is a comedy-drama running 97 minutes. It earned about 1 million dollars worldwide, a modest figure for a US independent release. On IMDb it holds 6.7/10 from around 42,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.5/10 from roughly 591 votes, showing a moderately positive but not enthusiastic audience response. A critics' rating of 6.6/10 from 114 reviews places it close to the audience scores.