Now & Then: From Frosh to Seniors

Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine's new film is a sequel to their 1993 Frosh: Nine Months in a Freshman Dorm, and it follows the lives of the nine former freshman at Stanford chronicled in the first film, to see if they've turned out any differently from what they expected to become four years ago. Strangely, their heads all seem to be a lot rounder. No kidding. Chalk it up, perhaps, to new camera lenses, or the changing fashion in haircuts. If you missed Frosh, fear not; there's ample freshman-year footage contained herein, enough that one probably doesn't need to see the first film at this point. Surprisingly, not one of the students has dropped out completely, though some have taken (or are still on) hiatuses. All seem to have established firm ideologies, however, from the insecure young black girl who now professes periodically to hate white people, to the once-bisexual pothead who now realizes that he's definitely gay, to two young women who embrace feminist studies and rail against the male students' beer commercial posters. The complicated transition from insecurity to ideology is briefly synopsized in most cases, making one wish that the film had perhaps chosen fewer characters, and checked up on them more often. The film is never uninteresting, but it ultimately serves to reinforce the movie stereotype of college being the best years of your life, and how it's oh so meaningful, etc. Given that this film is being touted as in the tradition of Michael Apted's 7 Up series, however, maybe we'll check in again in four years and find a whole new angle. Until then, have fun with this movie, but don't expect any radical insights.