REVIEW: ‘American Spirit’ Is An Instant Classic

College movies are often all about comedy. Fraternities, sororities, drinking, partying, that’s how we think of college in film. But in reality, while those coming-of-age stories dripping in excess reduce their subjects to surface-level people with shallow connections to the world around them, college life is tumultuous. It’s when you rediscover who you are and how you see the world and begin to deconstruct your past in relation to the new person being formed on campus. American Spirit captures that stillness of a night in a college city between two exes talking.

Taking place on the University of Texas at Austin campus, Melody (Yasmeen Fletcher) and Jonathan (Cooper Roth) dated in high school, but that was four years ago. Melody is dating someone new, but the exes retread their past when she bumps into Jonathan coincidently at a convenience store. They talk through the missteps and who they’ve become since they started school and contemplate what their life means at that exact moment. They confront the past’s miscommunication and ultimately make the most of a chance encounter by being as open as possible. I mean, they may not see each other again.

UT-alum and first-time writer-director Christopher Yates draws on clear inspiration from Austin-based director Richard Linklater‘s beloved Before Trilogy. While Yates leans on the small details of a conversation as Linklater did, he avoids mimicking that famed romance. Instead, Yate’s subjects, Melody and Jonathan, come into their conversation not to learn about who the other is organically but to see if who they thought they were still holds true.

Upheld by their past but propelled by curiosity and genuine connection, Melody and Jonathan are immediately recognizable. Whether you’re their age now or were their age 10 years ago, their commentary and emotional exploration feel timeless. The thoughtless choice to only feature a cell phone twice allows the duo to walk through the UT campus without feeling captured in place at one time. An alum myself, Yate’s eye for capturing the beauty of the campus and the banal nature of its classrooms simultaneously crafts a story that works across generations of alumni and audiences.

American Spirit’s scope is infinitely personal, but how the conversations reflect relationships and growth into adulthood feels extraordinarily universal. But it isn’t just Yate’s dialogue that makes it so. The success of the film’s calmness is thanks to its leads, Yasmeen Fletcher and Cooper Roth. The duo are experts at endearing the audience to their sides. They each push and pull the audience and hold your attention as their conversation evolves throughout the night.

American Spirit is charming and engrossing. It’s simple yet deeply moving. Yates’ attention to the details between two people and Fletcher and Roth’s performances remind cinephiles of the power of conversation. American Spirit is a timeless film that boldly stands out against the bombastic landscape of filmmaking. It focuses on the tethers between people, how we break them down and rebuild them, and how our shifting personalities impact both processes.

I want to say that American Spirit feels like an echo of my favorite Linklater films, but that would be a disservice. Yates showcases what stillness, connection, and one night feel like now for his generation. In doing so, he’s created a timeless classic.

American Spirit premiered at the Austin Film Festival.