SXSW Review: Kris Rey’s ‘I Used to Go Here’ is a Pleasant if Restrained Walk Down Memory Lane
“I was afraid to fail and then I did fail”
The past almost always feels comforting when faced with uncertainty ahead. At least, that sentiment is seemingly why newly minted author Kate (Gillian Jacobs) chooses to accept an invitation from her alma mater to give a talk about her recently published book. The talk follows lagging sales that have caused her publisher to cancel her book tour and comes just after she parts ways with her fiance. The chance to return to the place where her old college professor David (Jemaine Clement) still champions her work and to spend some time reminding herself of how far she’s come in her writing journey is too good to pass up. What she finds there is a little more complicated than expected.
“I was afraid to fail and then I did fail” is the true summary of her journey as Kate eventually admits. But it’s not before writer/director Kris Rey pauses and lets the audience stew in that thought. But the intimacy of I Used to Go Here makes you question if just the thinnest of facades may be being used here. “Are we afraid to fail?” we find ourselves asking. Could that quote be autobiographical? The movie keeps those cards close to its chest. The thought feels universal nonetheless. The audience does get the sense however that Kate believes her book is bad. I Used to Go Here is not coy about that. We watch as she dances around giving the thought of failure anything more than the minimal amount at the very back of her brain. But if nothing else, Rey forces us to sit with these hard truths in sometimes unexpected ways. Kate believes what many people do growing up, that someday you will reach an age where you have your future figured out. That putting your head down and doing the work will eventually lead you to feeling confident in your abilities. Kate has reached that age without that result. Now what?
Kris Rey’s I Used to Go Here feels like a throwback film despite being set in modern days. One part eccentric self-discovery, one-part ruminative and shenanigan-filled, it’s reminiscent of the type of movie that might have turned heads at film festivals a decade and a half ago but now is having to fight to be heard. Kate and her story are enough to enjoy the stroll down memory lane even if the familiar walk is not exactly the journey we have come to expect. What’s different? For one, it feels as if it has a perspective from 2020. Rey portrays the modern college generation as containing almost infinite empathy, sometimes at the expense of the older characters. At one point, Kate finds herself in the cliche situation of being trapped in a dorm-type room while a college-aged couple hooks up unaware of her presence. When she is inevitably discovered, the film makes a point to show the students as open-minded and empathetic to Kate’s situation rather than just indignant over their interrupted copulation. This familiar setup with a twist on the outcome feels like a microcosm for the film. Rey gives us the familiar setup, but then what? Jacobs and Clement let us in to the messy life beneath the surface in I Used to Go Here, but it’s Kris Rey’s compassion in newer nooks of the heart that produce the more meaningful moments this film has to offer.
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