A smart, sweet gem of a comedy, I Used to Go Here stars Gillian Jacobs as Kate, a thirtysomething, first-time novelist who accepts an invitation to speak at her alma mater to soothe the wounds of sagging early sales and middling reviews. Writer-director Kris Rey gives the movie a vulnerable honesty (nicely worn by Jacobs) as it noodles around in that space between college-age idealism and adult realism. (An early detail—Kate being forced to pose with three pregnant friends, holding her book by her belly—tells us exactly how displaced she feels.) Back on campus, Kate falls in with some creative-writing students who live in her old house and reunites with her former professor, once a campus favorite but now a flailing fraud (Jemaine Clement, oozing insecurity from his eyebrows). Hijinks ensue, but always in a realistic register. Rey and editor Zach Clark deliver a few ingeniously comic edits, cutting from extremely awkward and antagonistic situations (which I don’t want to spoil) ahead to those very same characters in calm and reasonable discussion over what just happened. In fact, much of the movie skillfully segues from anxiety to acceptance. (Kate has a running feud with her older, bed-and-breakfast hostess that slowly evolves into a mother-daughter dynamic, culminating with the grace note of a lovingly served breakfast.) I Used to Go Here won’t change the world, but it’s a pleasure watching Kate find a slightly more secure place within it.
