I watch this movie all the time. Not because it's a magnificent work of mastery, but because it simply feels like home. The characters are all quite relatable and if you don't personally identify with at least one of them, you definitely know someone who does.
Having seen countless movies on the topic of high school graduation, i had never seen one specifically about college, although the plot made complete sense to me. Each character, at first nearly indistinguishable from one another, goes down a different path while trying to remain connected to their past selves. This ultimately does not work for any of them, and in fact, sours the sweetness that was their past life.
This movie resonated with me on a personal level because of the way i connected with jane and grover. A dedicated scholar, i am always pushing myself to pursue a rigorous education and career. However, when push comes to shove, the burnout can become quite real. As a recent high school graduate, i can picture myself feeling like grover does as he watches jane leave for prague to pursue the career that he should and could have with her, yet he's stuck in the same place he put himself and simply lacks the motivation to do anything about it. On the inside, he's kicking and screaming, yet on the outside, he's silently sitting next to his answering machine or in a bar or, most profoundly, in a college dorm room. Grover has checked all the boxes and done all he has been expected to do. He has undoubted talent and education, yet he stands at a crossroads between taking a risk for what he truly wants and settling for what he thinks he's supposed to do next.
Also, he's the embodiment of jeff buckley's album grace.
Max is in a similar situation as grover, but lacks an outlet to channel his negative emotions. Grover channels his sadness into longing for jane, yet max appears to have no strong connection to another person. This makes him pessimistic and a bit narcissistic. He's too busy wallowing in his own sadness to realize that his behavior is unacceptable, like dating a high schooler, sleeping with his best friend's longtime girlfriend, and teasing otis. He both physically and metaphorically leaves broken glass on the floor, and while it's nice of him to leave a sign that lets everyone know how much of a wreck he is, that doesn't mean people still can't get hurt. At the end of the day, even though gravity is what might have caused the glass to break, it was he who broke it and it's his obligation to clean it up, rather than leaving it on the floor and putting that burden onto those close to him.
Otis, just like grover and max, is undeniably smart, talented, and lacking in ambition. However, he makes the bravest move out of the three by continuing his career elsewhere. Although i give him credit for making a such a bold move to a different time zone, he returns not long after because he longs for the presence of "home." he misses his mother and friends because he feels he has lost something without their constant torment. Otis has become too comfortable with his own insecurities and forgets who he is when he doesn't have his friends to keep pointing them out. He settles for a part one job at a movie store because he needs to constantly remind himself of how small he feels on the inside. He frequently lowballs himself because he thinks that's what he deserves, even though he's the only one out of the three that's actually continued working for the career that he deliberately gave up.
Skippy is different from his three friends in a sense where he appears to lack intelligence, but not ambition. His major is never stated, likely because he's the only one out of the three that doesn't really seem to care about it. He doesn't know where he's going; he's just there for the ride. He has heart, unlike max, heart without longing, unlike grover, and a carefree mentality, unlike otis. But like the rest of them, he lacks a clear path forward. The thing that sets skippy apart the most is that he sees no issue with taking a step backwards, even though he knows he's expected to go forwards. On one hand, i respect him for that because sometimes you just need to do what works for you. But on the other, it remains unclear if that was his logic. Did he return to school because he needs to have the open world in front of him, rather than be a part of it, or did he return because he truly sees it as his next step forward? Is he returning to the comfort of possibility and his girlfriend, miami, as a way to avoid the future as a whole? This question never finds its answer as his world comes crashing down after he learns that miami and max slept together, but even though he feels like he's been ripped to pieces, he's still able to make her smile. Even though she does something so unkind to him, he stays with her; but he never explicitly says he loves her. Does he stay because he does, in fact, love her? Or does he stay because, despite her betrayal, she is the only stability in his life and like otis, he doesn't know who he is without her?
All in all, this is a movie about comfort. It shows four different viewpoints on the comfort of discomfort, and how we allow ourselves to accept things as they are even when we have the power to change them. But ultimately, it concludes that after a while, what was once comfortable for us can become uncomfortable, and it's healthy to recognize that. We can apply this notion to our own lives after watching the debatable downfall of these four friends due to their infantile need to cling to what once was. While this is no star wars, it's truly an excellent example of real life people, problems, and situations that enlighten the viewer with a philosophical perspective about ourselves, our society, and our education system.
I hope you enjoyed reading my dollar store psychoanalysis.
