LIberal Arts: Ted Moseby Makes Movies?

BY: ORANGECHAIR
Sometimes it’s the movies you decide to watch at random that end up surprising you the most A film directed and written by Josh Radnor, Ted Moseby from How I Met Your Mother, I was shocked at how much I enjoyed Liberal Arts. The film was released On Demand the same day is was released in theaters and for the first time in my life, I took advantage of it. Liberal Arts features a charmingly depressing cast (how’s that for an oxymoron) and an oddly compelling plot driven by the arguably inappropriate relationships that form between the characters. As the plot unfolds and relationships evolve, it becomes clear that this is a film about finding your place in the world.

The film focuses on literature major Jesse Fisher (Josh Radnor) who now works admissions for a college in New York City. A down on his luck, lonely man, Jesse is rarely on camera without a book and seems to use reading to shield himself from the real world. When his favorite Professor Peter Hoberg (Richard Jenkins) calls to invite Jesse to his retirement dinner, Jesse rents a car and heads back to his alma Mater. Spending a weekend there, Jesse meets three people. The first is Zibby (Elizabeth Olson), a current student whose parents are friend of Professor Hoberg. Despite their age difference, Jesse is thirty something while Zibby is a young college student, a spark ignites between them that drives the rest of the plot. Jesse also meets a student Dean (John Magaro) who does not have many friends after a manic episode a year ago. Finally Jesse meets Nat (Zac Efron) a hippy-ish non student that hangs around campus for no reason.

The film focuses mainly on the relationship that forms between Zibby and Jesse. After meeting and having a coffee date, the two are inexplicably drawn to one another, setting up a system of sending hand written letters to one another. Jesse begins to visit Zibby and their relationship grows until their age difference gets in the way. After a fight, Jesse goes to a bar where he meets and sleeps with one of his old professors, Judith Fairfield (Allison Janney). Another fight occurs, emphasizing yet again the age difference between the two and reversing Jesse’s role. First he was the older in the relationship, then was the young (though only for a night) and he got hurt both times. While all of this happens, Jesse sees Nat a number of times, laughing at Nat’s odd view on life but learning from it at the same time. Jesse also tries to form a bond with the depressed Dean, trying to give the boy a lifeline when it seems that he has none.

As I said earlier, this film is about fining where you belong. Jesse works his way through an odd relationship only to learn, with Zibby’s help, to open his eyes and look at the world around him. Professor Hoberg attempts to deal with retirement, realizing he may not be ready to carve out a new place in the world. Dean is just attempting to find a place where he feels comfortable and loved. Zibby wants and thirsts for a relationship she cannot find in college but may not be ready for one. She needs to figure out what she wants and find a relationship she can thrive in.

This film surprised me on a number of different levels. I honestly couldn’t believe that Josh Radnor directed and wrote this film. The directing was well done. It wasn’t anything mind blowing but it certainly showed Radnor has some skill with the camera. What I was more impressed with from Radnor was the writing, specifically the character development. For two examples I would like to specifically reference two characters. The first is Professor Peter Hoberg. Richard Jenkins, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, is not on screen often but when he is, we have to watch his character go from an overdone college professor to a man who is terrified of what he is going to do without his job. Josh Radnor’s own character, Jesse, was a part of one scene that in my opinion completely changed his character. For the first couple scenes in the film, Jesse seems to be a bumbling dork that does not have the best social or vocal skills. I began to doubt that the character could graduate from College with any form of an English degree. Then came the scene where Jesse wrote his first letter to Zibby. Read in a voiceover, the audience gets to see how Jesse really sees things, in eloquent burst of analytic prose. Through his writing and acting, Radnor gave his characters a number of layers that were revealed throughout the film.

I was very pleased with this film. I thought the writing was great and Radnor did a good job directing. The performances were all brilliant, with each actor or actress giving their respective character a number of different surprising layers. I was shocked by the charming performance Elizabeth Olson gave, making me consider her a better actress than both her sisters in just one film. I give this film a 7 out of 10. It is an interesting, though provoking film that is a lot of fun to watch.

THE BOY AND THE BOOKSTORE PART 8 “Jerome Pead”

Redchair Original

It was Thursday on the first week back of the second semester. Over the break with the campus being very quiet Sam had decided that he was going to make a donation to the school. The school’s budget for their newspaper program, which was being run mostly by the students, was being cut significantly and Sam didn’t like this. He remembered spending time in the building where they allowed the students to run the school’s newspaper. It was crowded and had outdated computers and equipment that the school gave them when they upgraded their own equipment. Sam had made a donation of $25,000 and wrote a letter to the Dean demanding that the money go towards the student’s newspaper. He wanted the students to have new equipment and even add onto the building two new rooms where students could have a conference room as well as a key office for whoever was running the paper. Of course with such a request the Dean, Jerome Pead, had attempted to reach out to Sam and had only managed to reach Sam through mail. Sam ended up calling into Dean Pead’s office and scheduled a meeting with him for Thursday.

Sam wasn’t sure how much Dean Pead knew of him and attempted to get some ammo against the Dean in case this meeting went bad but Sam couldn’t find anything. He was a married man with two kids in high school. He used to teach and had experience in the business field. Other than deciding his first budget cut would be the student’s newspaper Sam liked the guy but he knew better than to trust someone he never met. Sam made sure to clean up his act a little bit to leave a good impression. He trimmed up his hair a little bit and showed up to the meeting clean shaven and wearing a suit. Sam walked up to the lady at the front desk and told him Dean Pead’s eleven o’clock meeting was here. She smiled and dialed back to the Dean’s office. He soon walked out with a smile on his face and offered his hand. He was a white male with a tan. He had a full set of hair but was showing signs of his hair graying. Sam smiled back and shook his hand. They exchanged in the normal casualty conversations when one person meets another during their walk in the hallway. Sam took a seat in one of the seats opposite of Dean Pead’s desk as Dean Pead sat down behind his desk.

“I want to thank you for your donation and I want to also thank you for making time to come in and meet with me.”

“No problem. It’s hard to turn down an invite from the Dean of the school.”

“Just out of curiosity, why did you decide that you wanted to help aid our student newspaper?”

“I knew someone who used to work on that paper and dedicated a lot of time to it. When I found out that the school was planning on cutting budgets I knew I needed to do something.”

“That’s great. Usually we get donations for our athletics programs or some scholar does well and makes a donation to our library. I never really understand why teams think they need so many different types of jerseys. I guess they do wear out after time and they don’t understand all the other financial obligations we had to pay for.”

“A lot of people would rather remain ignorant to the facts and think they’re doing a good thing than to put themselves in a person of your shoes.”

“Very well put. You know you’re younger than I thought you’d be, a lot younger actually. How did you come across such a large amount of money? Most people in your shoes would buy a car for $25,000 and not be worried about a school’s newspaper.”

“A car is a horrible investment. It only goes down in value once you drive it off the lot. A good school program can change a kid’s life.” Sam said. He had the feeling like he was being set up for something and didn’t want to answer how he came across the money for the donation. He was already starting to second guess how much he donated and realized he should have sent less and not become a spec on the radar now.

“Did you not want to disclose how you came across the money? Most kids your age would be more than willing to brag about the amount of wealth they’ve come a crossed.” Dean Mead said. After the Dean had used the word “kid” Sam turned from liking the guy to finding him a subject of interest.

“First off Jerome,” Sam knew saying his first name would gain his attention by being less courteous. “I’m not a kid and don’t appreciate you trying to stir up any trouble or allegations. If you want to know how I got the money to solve your curiosity I’ll tell you. I had a well-off uncle who passed away and left me a significant amount of money. A part of his will he wanted us to reinvest in the community and the world in things we believed in or things we believed would benefit others. Now if you want I can take the check back I sent you and rip it up and go elsewhere if that makes you feel better.”

“I apologize Mr. Thomas. I didn’t mean to make you feel that way. I do have to be honest with you and admit that it’s not the first time I’ve heard your name around here on campus and I was a little skeptical.”

“I understand. Not everyone is going to be a fan of you. What did you hear about me? Just out of curiosity.”

“We had a professor who had to be let go. He had mentioned your name. We of course had to investigate but the only records of you that I ever found was that you used to go to school here before you were expelled for plagiarizing. There’s no reason the two of you would have any ties other than that incident.” Sam was smiling on the inside while pretending to act worried on the outside as he listened to the Dean’s story.

“Well that’s unfortunate that a professor would have to drag my name through the mud to try and cover up his own misfortunes.”

“Indeed. But it did make me a little suspicious and that’s why I called you in here today. Would you mind telling me the story of how you got expelled? You don’t have to if you don’t want to but since it didn’t happen on my watch I might be able to help you out and get the expulsion off your record.” Sam knew what he was offering. In a sense he was offering Sam a clean record in exchange for $25,000. He knew it wasn’t right but then again money gets exchanged under the table all the time.

“No thanks. What you can help me out with though is giving me access to the implementation of upgrading Nears Hall and the equipment for the paper. I also would like some sort of access card to the facility to check up on the process and to check up on the students.”

“That doesn’t seem unreasonable. I will of course have to go through some channels and administrative stuff before we can get everything approved but then we can get together and go over what we plan on doing and see if we can get it all done with your donations and possible some of our own or with help of another donor.”

“Sounds great.”

“What’s the best way to contact you? I tried a phone number but it didn’t seem to work. I’m assuming you got the letter I wrote you.”

“Yeah. Email is probably the quickest.” Sam grabbed one of the dean’s cards and wrote an email address on the back of it. “Use this email and you can get ahold of me.”

“You don’t use a cell phone?” Dean Pead asked.

“I’m a writer. I’m on my laptop more than I have my cell phone on me. You’ve looked at my file up and down I’m sure so you should know that.” Sam was getting annoyed but Dean Pead and his body language of superiority. “But then again you’ve failed to put two and two together. A guy who gets a 3.5 GPA while he attended this university and also submitted articles to the school paper doesn’t need to plagiarize anything. But your administration who dismissed me failed to make that connection as well so I guess I shouldn’t put you on a pedestal. But I don’t really care if I have that red mark on my file. I don’t plan on going back to college because frankly it was a waste of time for the education I actually received. It turns out I’m writing for someone in the papers anyways. What I do want out of this exchange of money is for the right to make all the decision. I will listen to others but when it comes down to it, it’s my decision before we act. You got it?” The Dean’s attitude seemed to change as if he was now worried. “It’s this way or I take my money to another university.”

“You don’t really want to do that do you?”

“It doesn’t mean that I won’t.”

“Okay. Fine.” Sam reached into his pocket and pulled out two pieces of paper.

“I need you to read this and sign it and then I’ll be out of here.”

“What is this?”

“It’s a contract stating what we just discussed and if your side decides to break our deal you will be taken for everything you’re worth.” Dean Pead sat back in his chair and read over the one page contract. He then reached for a pen and signed both the sheets. It was the same contract on both sheets and he kept one while giving the other one back to Sam. Sam folded it up and put it back in his pocket.

“Have a good day Dean Pead.” Sam said while getting out of his chair and walking out the door. Sam was happy with how things went down. Not only was he gaining access to the facility when it would finally be built but he had all the rights to design the renovations. This might not appear as much to an outsider but Sam had been looking for a good fallout location in case anything was to happen. It would also allow him a bigger and more secure network to use for any cons he might do in the future and there were plenty of ideas running through his head as he walked out of the office.