Everything is going so well for Kate (Gillian Jacobs) in this slyly charming comedy by actress-turned-writer-director Kris Rey. Except, actually, nothing is. Kate's first novel has just been released, but her book tour has been cancelled by a wary publisher who, incidentally, gave the book a terrible-looking cover. Somewhere in her early 30s, Kate is free as a bird and has close friends, but the latter are all very pregnant and about to be very tied up with a new level of life responsibilities. Kate seems okay with being single, though her recently departed, live-in boyfriend is semi-ghosting her when she texts and calls. But she has been invited to appear for an on-campus reading at her alma mater, hosted by the writing program she once undertook and whose department chair, David (Jemaine Clement), appears to share some awkward history with Kate. So in what seems like a moment in her life when there's some bad mixed in with some good, Kate is hoping for at least a base hit by talking to a bunch of earnest, unformed students of writing who are sitting in a classroom where she used to sit. But, no, things only get more complicated, and Kate takes some solace hanging out in an off-campus student house where a bunch of those writer kids live—the same house where she and her fellow student scribes lived and partied back in the day. It's all a lot of fun: The uptight Kate and these insouciant, 19-year-old pirates dancing and getting into mischief together. Rey brings a lot of snap and anarchy to the proceedings (one of the students in the house is named "Animal," which should tell you a lot), but the movie never tilts into gross PCU college party humor. Still, Rey is up for a clever joke, and she's got the right man to pull it off: Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island fame, in a small role as a loser un-selfconsciously named Bradley Cooper. Young Josh Wiggins is very notable as a writing student who befriends the much older Kate. Wiggins plays him as a living blueprint for a good man who will evolve in future years and after many experiences. Strongly recommended. (T. Keogh)