With school having just started, many of us are still trying to snap ourselves out of vacation mode. It’s difficult to get excited about lectures and syllabi, when just a month ago you were spending whole days just lazing in bed and binge-watching TV shows while wrapped up in a cozy blanket. Still, there’s a lot of excitement to be found amid the college grind; you just have to be able to look at things a certain way. These six films, then, will show you the way, or at the very least, make for an entertaining two-hour break in between study sessions.
Each of these movies represent a key aspect of the college experience, from the awkward trepidation of freshman year to the nostalgic satisfaction of looking back at it all, as well as all the memorable parts in between. Think of this list, then, as an attempt to chart the college journey; perhaps you’ll find something familiar in all of them.
Freshman Year - Pitch Perfect (2012, Jason Moore)
What happens: A loner college freshman joins an all-girl acapella group, discovers the meaning of aca-friendship.
Freshman year tends to be rough. You have to introduce yourself to about a hundred new people, while simultaneously figuring out both your short-term and long-term plans in life. It's scary, and few films articulate just how frightening all of this is better than Pitch Perfect. Beca (Anna Kendrick) is your archetypal freshman—awkward, lost, and just a little bit antisocial. The story of her finding a home away from home, then, should resonate with just about everyone. Plus, the music is fantastic.
Studies - Legally Blonde (2001, Robert Luketic)
What happens: An overachieving law student struggles with juggling her academics, friendships, and love life at Harvard Law School.
The whole college experience is an exercise in balance. While you'd obviously want to invest a lot of time in your studies, you also don't want to neglect having a life outside of school. It gets even more difficult when your academic and personal lives get tangled up, as Legally Blonde so humorously shows. While not all of us are as high-powered as Elle Woods, we've all struggled with juggling responsibilities at one point or another. At the very least, the film is a reminder that you are not alone.
Professors - Wonder Boys (2000, Curtis Hanson)
What happens: A writing professor with an epic case of writer’s block finds inspiration in his students and in his own personal problems.
One of the fundamental truths you really learn in college is that professors are people, too. Like us, they’re flawed beings, with their own requirements and due dates to worry about, and like us, they don’t always deal with them in the best of ways. This makes them the perfect mentors, because they know where we’re coming from. Wonder Boys is unique in the college film canon in that it focuses mostly on a professor instead of a student, but there’s a lot of wisdom here, regardless of your age group.
Extra-curriculars - The Social Network (2010, David Fincher)
What happens: An antisocial Harvard student creates the most important cultural artifact of our time, but burns many bridges along the way.
While Mark Zuckerberg's (Jesse Eisenberg) sociopathical road to success in the film isn't something we advocate here at Vantage, he did get one thing right: College isn't all about what you learn inside the classroom. You don't have to create the next Facebook to have a fulfilling extra-curricular life; all you need to do is figure out your niche and stick with it. As Bukowski said, “Find what you love and let it kill you”—figuratively, of course.
"Then What?" - The Graduate (1967, Mike Nichols)
What happens: A confused college graduate looks for love in all the wrong places, while refusing to figure out his future.
If you think you'll have everything figured out once you're done with college, you could not be more wrong. Graduating won't mean you'll stop making mistakes and learning from them. In that sense, The Graduate is the quintessential post-grad movie, perfectly capturing the dread that comes along when faced with the rest of your life. It’s not a movie about characters making the best decisions, but rather a movie about characters just winging it. In the end, that’s pretty much all we can ask of ourselves.
Looking back - Liberal Arts (2012, Josh Radnor)
What happens: A burnt-out writer goes back to his alma mater, hoping to find himself; instead, he finds someone else.
College can be a bit too much sometimes, but the real world can be a bit too much all the time. Sometimes, you'll need to recharge your batteries someplace familiar, someplace that feels like home. Liberal Arts acknowledges this—even celebrates it—but it also warns against getting too caught up in the past. No one wants to be that guy who peaked in college, after all. Nostalgia, like all things, is good in small doses.