College isn’t going as planned in Shithouse, the feature debut of writer/director Cooper Raiff.
A lot of expectations are placed on your college years. Wild nights, lifelong friends, the chance to do things you’ll never do again, all of that and more is supposed to be yours, but Alex isn’t getting any of it. His freshman year is off to a quiet start, one that sees him struggling to fit in. One night he finally stumbles upon a chance for things to open up when he unexpectedly connects with his RA, and he’s not about to let the opportunity go.
In many ways this promises to be the opposite of the usually boisterous college movie, reflecting instead that weird, uncertain time many people have when they’re unsure how to kick-start the experience. It’s probably good that such an oddity was made by one person with (hopefully) a clear vision: Cooper Raiff. He directs, writes, edits, and stars in this movie, giving us a pretty unfiltered look at his skills as a filmmaker.
This is the kind of film that probably would’ve had a long festival run to build up momentum, but its showing at this year’s modified SXSW provided plenty of word of mouth. Strong reviews and its Grand Jury Award for Narrative Feature is pretty much the strongest possible outcome, making Shithouse one that you should probably track down.
Shithouse is directed by Cooper Raiff and stars Raiff, Dylan Gelula, and Logan Miller. It will be released in the US in theaters and on-demand on October 16th, 2020. Further release dates are not currently known.
Will you check this one out? Let us know in the comments!
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