New year, new start. I returned to Cambridge determined to start anew and resigning myself to the inevitable procrastination cycle, visiting Cindies, Fitzbillies and the cinema to soften the trauma of essay deadlines. After my first term-time trip to the cinema to see Liberal Arts, the first stage of this Brilliant Essay Avoidance Plan is now completed.

With a suitably academic tagline for the start of term - ‘Sometimes students make the best teachers’- Liberal Arts is a brilliantly characterised film. Josh Radnor stars as Jesse, a Kenyon College alumnus who returns to attend his former professor’s retirement party. A chance encounter introduces him to the brazen Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen) whom he meets again at a party. When Nat, a Rastafarian-sporting hippie, nominates himself as the matchmaker for the pair, a slight hitch to the guarantee of a beautiful union emerges: Jesse is thirty-five while his lover is only nineteen.

Zibby is a precocious teenager who believes in always saying yes to everything as her life philosophy. She is more forward than the tentative Jesse, who is initially reluctant to begin a relationship after realising that when she was three when he was sixteen. This undermines any potential Lolita or Fifty Shades of Grey connotations in favour of constructing an impressive study in personal development. Olsen, having displayed her acting ability in last year’s Martha Marcy May Marlene, introduces Jesse to Baroque music and the art of letter-writing; luckily, he discovers a love for Massenet while sparking a flurry of missives between the pair in ‘seventeenth century’ style. The pair’s tender affection is complemented by Ben Toth’s brilliant soundtrack, as the strains of Vivaldi and Beethoven accompany views of the vast pastoral panoramas characterising small-town Ohio.

The plot’s simplicity is offset by the broadness of the ideas explored, as its protagonists debate on topics ranging from the pointlessness of a certain series of vampire novels to the purpose of literature. Zibby avoids falling into the contrived kooky female mould plaguing recent indie films by displaying an intense maturity and foresight. Her self-awareness acts as a foil to fellow undergraduates Nat and the depressed Dean, who bonds with Jesse over David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. This effective use of literature and music is a novel way of charting the time-honoured coming-of-age tale. With its likeable characters and interesting discussions, Liberal Arts is an enjoyable film that proves that youth and innocence can be more than a match for age and experience.