The Freshmen: Thomas Lilti’s film is an interesting but ultimately not particularly exciting character study, one that follows the hardships of two friends through the early days of pre-med school. The relative opposition of the two (the untalented and obsessive with the talented and uninterested) makes it richer, but the story is a bit too lightweight to register fully. The two young performers are quite fine: Vincent Lacoste as the man saddened by a dream that appears unreachable and William Lebghil as the justifiably easygoing one. The film is well put together, with competent cinematography (by the director of photography Nicolas Gaurin) and editing (by editor Lilian Corbeille); neither is particularly showy, but allow the focus to remain on the performances and story.