Freshman Year review – almost subversive college days rom-com

The college of the American movies is usually depicted as a laugh-a-minute smorgasbord of casual sex, excessive drinking, and debauched behaviour. Not here. For lonely Alex, college is a mere petri dish for his anxiety to fester. As he watches from the sidelines, friendless and with only a stuffed animal for company, he can't escape the lingering feeling that everyone but him knows the secret to fitting in.

24-year-old Cooper Raiff writes, directs and stars in Freshman Year (better titled Shithouse in the US), a mumblecore-ish blend of drama and comedy that repeatedly catches you off-guard by juxtaposing college movie cliches with moments of disarming sensitivity. It almost earns the label of “subversive” before making what feels like a crucial misstep in its last five minutes.

The film works best when it's working to overturn our expectations. Alex is an unlikely protagonist for this sort of film. He's handsome and affable, yet still can't seem to find anyone to call a friend. He phones his mother (Amy Landecker) just so he can listen to her voice and fall asleep. He has to put up with his drunk bro of a roommate (Logan Miller) telling him that he hates him. “Why is college so hard?” he asks, and it's refreshing to see a movie in this genre in which a male character weeps and it isn't played for laughs.

Things change when Alex meets fellow student Maggie (an excellently dry Dylan Gelula), with whom he finds a rapport after they run into each other three times on the same night. Cue a Before Sunset-like walk and talk that seems to steer the film into more cliched territory. But then the second half – kicking in the morning after – takes an unexpected turn. Maggie claims she was very drunk and writes it all off as just another casual hook-up. But for Alex, it was a life-changing experience – the kind you'd find in, well, a movie.

As Alex tries to come to terms with their differing versions of events, he becomes increasingly erratic and stalker-ish and the film finds a unique place to explore sexual agency and the nature of casual hookups. But what about the dud of an ending? Without spoiling anything, Raiff submits to a coda that feels like a studio note. Set 2.5 years later, it leaves a funny taste. It's a choice that means Freshman Year winds up being only half as interesting as it should be. But Raiff is certainly one to watch, and Gelula should be a bigger star.

Freshman Year is now available to rent and buy on various digital platforms.