Stream It Or Skip It: ‘I Used to Go Here’ on HBO Max, a Nicely Understated Back-to-College Comedy Starring Gillian Jacobs

Now on HBO, I Used to Go Here is an unusually understated comedy considering its production team consists of Lonely Island goofs Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. Written and directed by Kris Rey, the movie stars Community’s Gillian Jacobs as a novelist in her mid-30s whose various personal crises unexpectedly surface while visiting her alma mater. Laughter ensues — we hope?

I USED TO GO HERE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Rough day: Kate (Jacobs) fields a bad-news call from her agent. Sales for her debut book are officially Not Great. And the book tour is canceled, although, Kate asks, isn’t the tour supposed to drum up interest and sales? There’s all kinds of breaking-it-to-her-gently discourse about it, because there’s a nice way of saying the publisher is cutting its losses, and there’s the more honest and direct way of saying it, and they choose the nice way even though it might not be the best way, but Kate is wise enough to know how to translate such tonal couching. Kate hangs up the phone and opens the package that arrived in the mail to find the wedding invitations she ordered. For a wedding that’s no longer happening. Like I said, rough day.

Don’t worry, it gets more awkward. Kate’s three closest friends are all pregnant. She attends a party and she’s forced to pose for a photo with them, holding her new failure of a book in front of her belly, which is many groans, dozens of ughs and quite a few cringes. Things start looking up, sort of, when her old creative writing prof, David (Jemaine Clement), invites her to campus to read an excerpt of her book. I say “sort of” because she seems a little bit emotionally vulnerable right now in an early-mid-life-crisis kind of way, and going back to her old college stomping grounds might inspire the type of wistful nostalgia that only further stokes the flames of her depressive state.

Of course, I also say “sort of” because I watched the movie and know what happens when she gets there. There seems to be some sort of awkward subtext to her interactions with David. She’s kind of not all that great at giving readings, what with how she awkwardly discloses to a modestly full smallish auditorium full of people how she doesn’t really like the book cover her publisher chose. And she’s staying at a B&B that’s right across the street from her old house, which is dubbed the Writer’s Retreat because she dubbed it so 15 years ago, and where she awkwardly introduces herself to its three current residents, Hugo (Josh Wiggins), Animal (Forrest Goodluck) and Tall Brandon (Brandon Daley). She visits David’s class, and his star student, April (Hannah Marks), reads some of her extraordinary work, and Kate awkwardly reacts with a dismissiveness that barely masks her envy. Maybe this visit was sort of not a good idea — or maybe Kate just needs to go through all this right now.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Rey has a toe or three in the “mumblecore” movement, so this movie is like a slightly streamlined and accessible take on stuff like Jeff, Who Lives at Home or the exemplary Greta Gerwig/Noah Baumbach collaboration Frances Ha.

Performance Worth Watching: Jacobs finds the perfect tone for this character, who realizes that a little bit of personal regression makes her realize the need to progress to the next stage of her life. She’s funny and insightful, taking the role just serious enough to make it substantial, but not so serious that she weighs it down.

Memorable Dialogue: Kate meets up with an old college friend who happens to be named Bradley Cooper (Jorma Taccone), and he tells her a secret shame that he seems not at all ashamed about: “I used to jerk off to you in college… and when I saw you today, it all came rushing back.”

Sex and Skin: Just some horizontal snogging.

Our Take: The Lonely Island could rejigger their Lego Movie song “Everything is Awesome” for this movie: “Everything is Awkward.” But awkwardness and transition are so often bedfellows, and that’s Kate’s truth right now, as her friends start families and she’s likely looking at a wholesale rebuild of her life. But I Used to Go Here doesn’t go for big, obvious laughs, neatly sidestepping college-comedy cliches (see: everything from Animal House to Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) for more subtle insights. Its funny is never forced.

Take Kate’s book, a romance titled Seasons Passed, in which the protagonists never consummate their love, and whose cover is a corny painting of a couple holding hands in close-up. She describes it as “restrained,” but as the movie progresses, we realize it might just be very mediocre, and she likely compromised the work to get it published. People praise her for it, and she acts proud of it, but the truth is, some of those people didn’t bother to read it, and she might be secretly ashamed of it. All the awkward-comedy situations the film puts her in wouldn’t be as effective without this ironic subtext. Notably, Rey based the story on her own experience presenting one of her early independent films at her alma mater, Southern University of Illinois, and the screenplay rings quietly with that emotional authenticity.

I Used to Go Here also broadens itself for accessibility’s sake, depositing overenthusiastic fanboy and strict B&B manager characters into the story, and stretching a few situations unto implausibility. The film is funny enough to temper its protagonist’s melancholy, and Rey keeps the tone bubbly without arbitrating its modest insights.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I Used to Go Here is a solid character comedy with its share of small-to-medium-sized laughs. It’s not going to change anybody’s life, but those who appreciate Jacobs’ work will find plenty to enjoy here.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream I Used to Go Here on HBO Max