‘I Used to Go Here’ review: An Illinois story, starring Gillian Jacobs and Jemaine Clement, enjoys a Pilsen sneak preview Wednesday
Chicago filmmaker Kris Rey’s plaintive winning streak of easygoing character studies continues with “I Used to Go Here,” about a 35-year-old debut novelist, played by Gillian Jacobs,invited to give a reading at her alma mater in downstate Carbondale, Ill.
The invitation comes at an opportune time. Jacobs’ character, Kate, has just had a wedding engagement fizzle underneath her, leaving her nothing but unanswered texts and weaselly voice messages. She’s feeling directionless and unmoored, so the Carbondale writing professor hosting her book tour stop, a former mentor and horndog-by-reputation played by Jemaine Clement, represents a tantalizing diversion in the making.
“I Used to Go Here” is a paradox: a sidewinding slice of life inside a lean, compact 86-minute proposition. Rey, herself a graduate of Southern Illinois University, follows Kate’s visit and her retreat into her own college years, as she befriends a group of writing students living in her old house on one of the leafy green streets near campus. (Rey shot the film in Carbondale and in Chicago; the opening exterior sequence locates her Chicago apartment near the Western Brown Line stop in Lincoln Square.)
At her old residence house, “The Writers’ Retreat,” Kate strikes up a conversation with a group of roommates 15 or so years younger. The aspiring author Hugo (Josh Wiggins) takes an evident shine to this semi-exotic Chicago success story. Like his housemates, Hugo sees Kate as someone who has already made it.
Kate feels otherwise. Her book tour gets cancelled before it even begins, owing to poor sales of her debut effort, and she has a habit of redirecting her disappointments onto the plates of the nearest acquaintance. If she’s so successful, why isn’t she actually successful? And why can’t she let go of her ex? (In a cheeky touch, writer-director Rey shows up on screen, in lovey-dovey Instagram posts, as the boyfriend’s new love, “Rae.”)
The lightly carbonated fizz of “I Used to Go Here” has everything to do with Rey’s deftly chosen ensemble. Kate’s van driver and student host is an ever-smiling fountain of hospitality played by Rammel Chan. Although Kate, as written, could use a few more distinguishing details, or enlivening contradictions, Jacobs anchors the film easily and well.
Like Rey’s previous feature, the 2015 seriocomedy “Unexpected,” her latest has a clear and humane instinct guiding the narrative. There are some sequences, such as a climactic confrontation between Jacobs and Clement, that feel uncertain and a little jumpy. Elsewhere, you wouldn’t mind, well, a little more — more discursive details and grace notes, the sort of observational texture that could’ve turned “I Used to Go Here” into a slightly longer, slightly messier and slightly more rewarding experience.
But folks, that’s just me. Straight lines and lotsa plot can be lovely (he said, condescendingly), but I’d rather not know where a movie, or a character looking for something, is headed. “I Used to Go Here” is worth seeing, if only for moments such as Kate, on the phone from Carbondale (”I’m in Carbondale!” she says, her voice full of ironic wonder) with her extremely pregnant Chicago friend (Zoe Chao). Kate recently ran into a boy, now a man, someone they knew in college. “Do you remember when we saw him crying?” “Yes! In the Jimmy Johns!”
That’s throwaway dialogue that sounds like real life, plus it’s funny. We’ve all seen too many movies, of every size and shape, without much of either.
Three stars (out of four)
No MPAA rating (some language and drug use)
Running time: 1:26
Premieres: 8:20 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Wednesday July 29, ChiTown Movies drive-in theater, 2343 S. Throop St., Pilsen. Filmmaker Kris Rey in attendance. $28 per vehicle. For more information, go to : https://www.universe.com/events/chitown-movies-presents-i-used-to-go-here-tickets-Y37LVJ.
“I Used to Go Here” opens at Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave., Friday July 31, the same day it’s available for online streaming via the Music Box Virtual Cinema. For more information, go to musicboxtheatre.com.
Michael Phillips is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @phillipstribune
———
©2020 the Chicago Tribune
Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
