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This Gen Z Before Sunrise finds tender romance in youthful self-discovery.
In Freshman Year, 23-year-old writer/director Cooper Raiff also stars as Alex, an endearingly awkward Occidental College freshman who’s missing his tight-knit Texas family and struggling to make friends on campus. Locked out of his room one night, he finds himself hooking up with his resident advisor Maggie, who’s a year older and much more self-assured and blasé. Alex falls instantly in love … but college is about to teach him some lessons that won’t appear on his history final.
Originally titled Shithouse, this dreamy hang-out romance is anything but – it beguiled critics at Rotterdam and won the Narrative Feature Grand Jury Award at last year’s virtual SXSW festival. A must-see for fans of Richard Linklater, Joe Swanberg and David Robert Mitchell, this is American indie filmmaking at its most charming.
“Disarming [and] deceptively simple … This deeply optimistic film has butterflies in its stomach for its beautiful pair of imperfect characters.” – RogerEbert.com