I Used to Go Here Review: Gillian Jacobs and Jemaine Clement Shine in Kris Rey’s Sweetly Comic Take on Success and Growing Up

In writer-director Kris Rey’s I Used to Go Here, success is relative. The film stars Gillian Jacobs (Community) as a 35-year-old recently-separated author who heads from Chicago back to her alma mater in sleepy Carbondale, Illinois, to promote her new book after her planned publicity tour is scrapped.

After her heavy-handed debut novel bombs, Kate Conklin (Jacobs) receives word that her book tour has been cancelled. Completely dejected by the news, Kate eagerly accepts an offer by her former professor David (Jemaine Clement) to speak to the students at her alma mater. After all, she is a published author now, even with the critical drubbing and low sales.

Once back in Carbondale, an eager driver (the scene-stealing Rammel Chan) brings Kate to her bed and breakfast, which just happens to be across the street from “The Writers’ Retreat,” the residence she lived in (and nicknamed) over a decade earlier. She meets the quirky new residents and quickly forms a bond with the much younger crew, including the goofy “Tall Brandon” (Brandon Daley) and the charmingly quiet Hugo (Josh Wiggins) who lives in her old room.

While getting reacquainted with her old stomping grounds and breathlessly calling her very-pregnant best friend and former Writer’s Retreat roommate (Zoe Chao) with updates, Kate reads from her novel in her David’s class, where she is treated like a returning celebrity. It’s clear there is some history between Kate and David, but Rey allows their romantic tension to play out for quite a while before things come to a head. Complicating matters is David’s new prized student April (Hannah Marks), who in many ways is a stand-in for Kate at her age. She’s an incredibly talented writer, and Kate can’t help but try to bring her down a notch when she comes to her for advice. April is also Hugo’s girlfriend and may or may not be having an affair with David, who is now married.

While those interlocking relationships form the basic plot of the film, Rey stages I Used to Go Here with the sort of laid-back pacing that brings to mind Richard Linklater’s best work — this is a hangout film in the best sense of the term. Rey has assembled such a stellar cast that you simply want to spend time with, regardless of the central thrust of the plot. Some of the film’s most memorable scenes are of Kate just lounging around with the Writers’ Retreat kids, either in their shambling house or during an ill-advised beach trip.

Rey touches on several themes with this film, from the realities of early “success” to the barriers women in academia face, including predatory professors eager to abuse their positions of power and influence over generations of young students. Yet despite those threads, I Used to Go Here retains a light touch; co-produced by The Lonely Planet, the film expertly balances the heartbreak with some great comedic moments, including a subplot with Tall Brandon and Hugo’s mother that feels like it was spawned from a ’90s teen comedy.

With a great central performance from Gillian Jacobs and a surprisingly dramatic turn from Jemaine Clement (ruining years of audience goodwill by finally playing an unlikeable character), I Used to Go Here is one of the best comedies of the year. Kris Rey has crafted a moving and inspiring character study that goes down as easy as a shotgunned PBR at your local college dorm party.

I Used to Go Here is available on video-on-demand as of August 7th.