LIBERAL ARTS

Year: 2012
USA: IFC Films
UK: Picturehouse Entertainment / Revolver Entertainment
Cast: Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Zac Efron, Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney, John Magaro, Elizabeth Reaser, Richard Jenkins, Michael Weston, Kate Burton, John Magaro, Kristen Bush, Robert Desiderio, Angelic Zambrana, Gregg Edelman, Ali Ahn
Director: Josh Radnor
Country: USA
USA: 97 mins
UK: mins
USA Rated: Unrated
UK Certificate:
USA Release Date: 14 September 2012 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 5 October 2012 (Limited Release)

Official UK website

Synopsis

Josh Radnor's second feature, LIBERAL ARTS, premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and at the inaugural London edition of Sundance in April. The writer, director and star's film boasts a strong cast alongside himself including Elizabeth Olsen, Zac Efron, Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney, John Magaro and Elizabeth Reaser.

Radnor's film tells the story of a 35 year-old man who returns to his alma mater and falls in love with a 19 year-old student played by Elizabeth Olsen. Radnor plays Jesse, a somewhat depressed admissions counsellor at a New York City college who is invited by a former professor (Richard Jenkins) to give a retirement speech in Ohio. There, Jesse meets a 19 year-old student named Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen) and an ill-advised relationship develops between the two.

Newly single, 35, and uninspired by his job, Jesse Fisher worries that his best days are behind him. But no matter how much he buries his head in a book, life keeps pulling Jesse back. When his favourite college professor invites him to campus to speak at his retirement dinner, Jesse jumps at the chance. He is prepared for the nostalgia of the dining halls and dorm rooms, the parties and poetry seminars; what he doesn’t see coming is Zibby - a beautiful, precocious, classical-music-loving sophomore. Zibby awakens scary, exciting, long-dormant feelings of possibility and connection that Jesse thought he had buried forever.

Josh is an actor, producer, director, and writer, probably best known for portraying the main character Ted Mosby on the popular, Emmy Award-winning CBS sitcom HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER. The seventh series is currently airing now on E4 and has a big and loyal audience. His directorial debut HAPPYTHANKYOUMOREPLEASE captured the 2010 dramatic Audience Award at Sundance.