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"Director: Josh Radnor; Screenwriter: Josh Radnor; Starring: Josh Radnor, Elizabeth Olsen, Zac Efron, Richard Jenkins, Allison Janney, John Magaro; Running time: 97 mins; Certificate: 12A  Glory days, they can pass you by in the wink of a young girl&amp;#039;s eye (or so Bruce Springsteen sang), but that hasn&amp;#039;t stopped American indie filmmakers from endlessly mining the subject matter for comedy-dramas. Often times it&amp;#039;ll see lively young [Manic Pixie Dream] girl lift an older man out of his stupor (see: Zach Braff&amp;#039;s Garden State), and that&amp;#039;s certainly the case with Liberal Arts, the latest writer/director offering from How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor. In his follow-up to Happythankyoumoreplease, Radnor plays Jesse Fisher, an admissions officer who heads back to his alma mater for his old professor&amp;#039;s retirement party. Whilst there he sparks up an instant connection with Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), a whip-smart college student who opens his mind to classical music and literature. Naturally, there&amp;#039;s a catch - she happens to be 16 years his junior.  After their initial meeting, they stay in touch through handwritten correspondence, prompting Jesse to return to campus and make their relationship a romantic one. As time passes, and Zibby&amp;#039;s inexperience weighs heavy on Jesse&amp;#039;s mind, they&amp;#039;re forced to make tough decisions when the seemingly fairytale romance begins to stumble. Radnor&amp;#039;s story may be retreading on familiar ground, but it&amp;#039;s funny, heartfelt and makes some smart observations about nostalgia and living in the past versus ploughing forward to the future. In Zibby, Jesse recognises the sense of optimism and youthful ambition he had some 15 years earlier. His attraction offers him the chance to recapture that feeling before &amp;quot;life happens&amp;quot;, but it&amp;#039;s in a later sequence with his bitter former romantics tutor - played hilariously by Allison Janney - that he&amp;#039;s pulled back to reality. In his journey of personal growth there is plenty to move, amuse and keep you engaged. The cast are uniformly excellent, particularly supporting players Richard Jenkins, Janney and the radiant Olsen. There&amp;#039;s a real surprise in Zac Efron&amp;#039;s small turn as a philosophical campus stoner, too. It&amp;#039;s probably the best performance the High School Musical alum has ever given. There are moments that don&amp;#039;t quite work in Liberal Arts, such as an extended subplot about the literary merits of the Twilight saga and a suicidal college genius (played by John Magaro) obsessed by a sprawling novel (unnamed in the movie, but likely David Foster Wallace&amp;#039;s Infinite Jest). These minor gripes aside, there&amp;#039;s still much to admire about Radnor&amp;#039;s second feature.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/movies/review/a406069/liberal-arts-review-josh-radnor-tries-to-relive-his-glory-days/>