Written and directed by Kris Rey
Starring Gillian Jacobs, Jemaine Clement and Kate Micucci
Running time: 1 hour and 20 minutes

by Liz Locke of CinemaSips.com

Writing is a tough business, especially for women. That’s the message I take away from I Used to Go Here, Kris Rey’s fantastic new film featuring Gillian Jacobs as a debut novelist trying to reconcile grandiose dreams with a lackluster middle-aged reality. This one-time star of her college English department thought the future would be filled with glamorous parties and well-reviewed personal essay collections, only to discover that life doesn’t always work out the way you plan. Blink, and you’re suddenly thirty-five, childless, single, holding an ugly pink novel with your name on the cover (a cover you had zero input on), wondering what the hell happened. Oh, and also people will buy your book, then never read your book. Adulthood—what fun!

With her publicity tour cancelled due to low sales and bad reviews, Kate (Jacobs) accepts an offer to speak at her alma mater in Carbondale, Illinois. She’s looking for an ego boost, as well as the chance to reconnect with a former professor, played by Jemaine Clement in yet another charming but morally bankrupt part. What follows is a classic “go back to a small town and figure out why your life is a mess” story, in the vein of Garden State, Young Adult, and Lynn Shelton’s masterpiece Laggies. In truth, I can see a lot of Lynn Shelton in Kris Rey’s writing/directing style, allowing both the comedy and pathos to be almost embarrassingly relatable. This is an understated, elegant film, and one of the best I’ve seen all year. Maybe that’s because I’m a middle-aged aspiring novelist who would KILL to have an ugly pink-covered book on the shelf one day, and it’s interesting to think about the many ways, as women, we set ourselves up to settle. I’m going into this business knowing that because of my gender, and because my books feature strong female characters with a healthy dash of romance, my writing will be labeled “women’s fiction”. Not fiction; women’s fiction, as though it comes with a bonus box of tampons and glass of rosé. As Kate says to another aspiring writer, “You gotta play the game or they’re never gonna publish you.” What many of us don’t realize until it’s too late, is that the game was rigged from the start.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Mr. Cutie-With-the-Dimples Josh Wiggins, who plays Kate’s young fling (it’s not a midlife crisis movie without an age-inappropriate love interest and sexy swimming scene). Wiggins is fantastic in this role, and it has me hoping he’ll fare better than some of the other pretty male ingénues Hollywood has flirted with over the years (lookin’ at you Dane DeHaan and Alden Ehrenreich). If we’re viewing this movie as the gender-swapped Garden State, he is our Natalie Portman. Give this guy a Netflix rom-com, stat.

Having been mostly underwhelmed by the cinema landscape during lockdown, I Used to Go Here has restored my faith in the medium. It’s also a good reminder that we need more backing for female writers/directors who are doing the work to connect with audiences on a deeply emotional level. Women deserve more than the pink cover, and we deserve films that tell our story. But please, please don’t ask us what that story is about. None of us will ever know the answer.

I Used To Go Here will be available in select theaters and On Demand August 7th.