Shithouse

Shithouse (bowdlerized in marketing material as S#!%house and released in some territories as Freshman Year) is a 2020 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, directed, and produced by Cooper Raiff, in his directorial debut. It stars Raiff, Dylan Gelula, Logan Miller, and Amy Landecker. The film was set to have its world premiere at South by Southwest in March 2020, but the festival was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The South by Southwest film competition nevertheless went ahead, and Shithouse won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature. It was released in the United States on October 16, 2020, by IFC Films. Plot Alex is a lonely college freshman struggling to adjust to college life, lying to his mother by inventing a best friend and girlfriend to conceal his lack of social life. One night, desperate to get out of his dorm, he attends a party at the "Shithouse" fraternity with his roommate, Sam, with whom he has a distant relationship. At the party, he bonds with Maggie, the sophomore residential advisor of his dorm. Though Maggie briefly leaves for an unfulfilling hookup with another student, she and Alex reconnect later that night and hang out. Alex fails to perform during their attempted hookup. Afterwards, the two genuinely bond, with Alex revealing his difficulties in connecting with other students, insecurity at living away from his family and the death of his father. In turn, Maggie opens up about her estrangement with her own father, the unexpected grief over a recent loss of her pet turtle and her secret dreams of acting. After spontaneously joining an impromptu night baseball game with a group of other students, they return to the dorms to drink and have sex. The next morning, Maggie is aloof and irritated by Alex's presence, which leaves him hurt and confused. He tries to reconnect with her in overbearing ways, such as sending her long messages on Instagram and liking all of her photos. In turn, Maggie ignores him when encountering him in front of her friends. Alex decides to make a sincere effort in bonding with Sam and they go to another party that night, which Maggie is also attending. Maggie treats Alex in a friendly way again, which he misinterprets as an invitation to reconnect, but when he later finds her hooking up with another student, they devolve into fighting.