Film

I Used to Go Here

A 35-year-old writer's homecoming to her college becomes a comic and melancholic reckoning with time, ambition, and the person she thought she'd be. Gillian Jacobs carries a film that's genuinely interested in the specific sting of middling success and the people who never left the place you've outgrown. Tender and funny in ways that creep up on you.

TMDb rating2.8

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20th Century Women2016

Another story about a woman trying to understand herself through younger people and the life she didn't live. Paul Thomas Anderson finds comedy and heartbreak in generational misalignment without sneering at anyone.

But It's deliberately paced and sometimes wanders; if you need plot momentum, this will feel like standing still.

20th Century Women poster

Fleabag2016

Phoebe Waller-Bridge's show about a woman running from adulthood while desperately needing to grow up. Sharp, self-aware, equally cynical and vulnerable. The fourth-wall breaks feel as natural as breathing.

But The emotional turns can feel sudden if you're expecting consistent comedy; some find the tonal shifts jarring rather than earned.

Fleabag poster

Never Rarely Sometimes Always2020

Eliza Hittman makes space for quiet observation and real consequence. A film about a young woman that trusts the audience to sit in discomfort without needing to resolve everything. Beautifully restrained.

But It's deliberately slow and offers no comfort; if you're looking for catharsis or answers, you'll leave frustrated.

Never Rarely Sometimes Always poster

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Rachel Getting Married2008

Both use the homecoming as a device to measure how far a woman hasn't come. Kate and Anne are locked in the same hurt of being seen as they actually are by people who knew them before.

Anne Hathaway returns home after rehab to her sister's wedding. Jonathan Demme shoots the family in gorgeous, painful intimacy. It's about women unable to let each other go, and the smallness of regret. Utterly alive.

But It's relentlessly focused on family dysfunction; there's no distance and no mercy. If you came for lightness, you'll feel trapped.

Rachel Getting Married poster
More like this (7)

The Comeback2005

Lisa Kudrow playing a delusional version of herself returning to TV. Mockumentary comedy that's both savage and sympathetic about reinvention, fame, and the gap between how you see yourself and how the world does.

But The humor is cringe-based and sustained; if you hate uncomfortable comedy, this will exhaust you.

The Comeback poster

Girls2012

Lena Dunham's show about women figuring out adulthood in real time, with all the selfishness and desperation that entails. Kate's mess feels at home here. Uneven but never boring, occasionally brilliant.

But It's deliberately unlikeable at times and some find the self-indulgence overwhelming; the tone can feel bratty rather than insightful.

Girls poster

Mistress America2015

Noah Baumbach's scrappy comedy about a younger woman fascinated by her older stepsister. It's about mentorship, envy, and the mythology we build around people we think have figured it out.

But The script is dense and fast; if you miss jokes, you'll feel like you're chasing the film rather than enjoying it.

Mistress America poster

Daria1997

A cartoon about a girl observing the world with detached intelligence and dry wit. Kate's alienation finds earlier precedent here. It's funny, genuinely kind to its characters, and doesn't talk down to its audience.

But It's a comedy without much plot; if you need narrative momentum, watching Daria think will feel static.

Daria poster

The Binge2020

A comedy that treats twentysomethings as actual people with logic and stakes. It's trashy and earnest, silly and occasionally smart. Captures something true about people Kate's age in her hometown.

But It's aggressively adolescent in tone; if you've outgrown party comedies, this will feel exhaustingly juvenile.

The Binge poster

Marriage Story2019

Both films understand that adulthood isn't arrival—it's the slow recognition that the future you planned for yourself doesn't exist. Kate's regression mirrors the way Baumbach's characters discover they've become strangers.

A film about the failure of love told with tenderness and without sides. Noah Baumbach watches two people who love each other hurt each other. It's devastated but not hopeless. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are extraordinary.

But It's a divorce film that takes the pain seriously; if you need romantic resolution or light romance, this will flatten you.

Marriage Story poster

Bread and Roses2000

Kate's disappointment is personal; the film's characters face structural humiliation. Both ask: what happens when you show up, do the work, and the world still doesn't owe you anything? Both refuse easy comfort in the answer.

Ken Loach's film about Mexican immigrants organizing in LA. It sounds far from Kate's world until you feel it: the specific exhaustion of trying to improve yourself in a system designed for your failure, and the women who refuse to accept that.

But It's politically committed and unglamorous; if you want entertainment divorced from consequence, its earnestness will feel like a lecture.

Bread and Roses poster

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