Rating: 
Summary: Tadpole says a lot about the Blue States
Review:
I finally got to view Tadpole---a few days after the most recent presidential election. The film has nothing directly to do with politics, but inadvertently it reminds one why the Democrats were crushed last Tuesday. Aaron Stanford aptly portrays fifteen year old Oscar Grubman, the son of a Columbia University historian (the late John Ritter) and stepson of a heart disease researcher (Signourney Weaver). This is an liberal elitist family living in Manhattan. Needless to add, their nonchalant attitudes toward sexuality, especially pertaining to older adults enjoying sex with young teenagers is considered disgraceful by the majority of citizens living in the red states.
We observe the precocious Oscar wrestling (often in French) with his existential and romantic challenges. Eventually he beds a woman in her forties (Bebe Neuwrath). This event is not reported to the police. On the contrary, nobody wishes to be judgmental. A teenage boy is supposedly nature enough to enter into such relationships. The United States is indeed split apart by a cultural war. Red and blue staters are barely able to comprehend the world view of each other. Tadpole will remind you just how serious are the differences. This movie is ironically important in a manner which would likely surprise director Gary Winick. You need to see it. This is especially true if you wish to take a peek at our national political future.
Rating: 
Summary: Zip It Up
Review: "Tadpole" is a fairly interesting film. In the era of abstinence, it assumes a permissive attitude about teen sex. Aaron Stanford who will soon play Pyro in "X2" gives an edgy performance as the teen Oscar Grubman who loves Voltaire and pines for his father's wife. John Ritter as dad Stanley does a nice job of being fatherly and out-of-touch. Sigourney Weaver's Eve is a brilliant cardiologist who is the apple of Oscar's eye. Their scene where they try to substitute another organ, the "liver," for "heart" is humorous, "you set my heart aquiver, you broke my liver" (or whatever the dialogue was). The best moments in the film belong to Bebe Neuwirth as the cradle-robbing Diane who is a free spirit. She has a fling with the wonderfully obtuse Phil played by Adam Le Fever, but doesn't let that get in the way of a little midnight fun with Oscar. She urges her friend Eve to put a little spice in her life and consider an affair with a 15-year old. Being as she makes this sound even remotely reasonable, she ought to gain special recognition. Robert Iler as Charlie does a nice job as well. I wanted to see this movie in the theatre & missed it; so I was surprised about 3 weeks later to find the DVD. The digital video shooting was distracting for me. Combined with some of the soap opera dialogue, I felt like I was watching television rather than a feature film. Still, it's reasonably entertaining. The restaurant scene with Diane sticking her foot in Osacar's crotch while he's busy trying to impress Eve and Stanley is oblivious is highly entertaining. So despite its shortcomings, you might as well zip it up and try Tadpole for a one-nighter. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: A little comedy that tries hard
Review: "Tadpole" is a slight little comedy that tries and fails to be more than it is. Its director, Gary Winick, won the Director's Award at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. Miramax then paid the producers of this independent project several million dollars for it. Who will ever understand the business of Hollywood?The movie tells the story of a bright, privileged, fifteen-year old New Yorker named Oscar [Aaron Stanford] who is in love with his stepmother, Eve [Sigourney Weaver]. He comes home from prep school for Thanksgiving determined to let her know. His plan is easier thought up than done. The house is crowded with friends and family, his loving father [John Ritter] is always in the way, and attractive girls his age keep popping up at the wrong times. Frustrated, he goes out and gets drunk one night and ends up at Diane's [Bebe Neuwirth] house. They make love, which complicates matters because Diane is Eve's best friend. The kid may have had his affair with an older woman, but not only is she the wrong woman, she also has a hard time keeping a secret. The cast is fun and makes the most of the script, which has moments of great wit but doesn't seem entirely fleshed out, especially with its ..., cop-out ending. I personally had a problem with Stanford's role. He is a fine actor, one to keep an eye on. He was twenty-four when he made the movie, and, through no fault of his own, his Oscar has the look and body language of someone in his twenties, rather than someone who is fifteen. [I didn't know Stanford's age when I watched the movie.] Consequently, much of what is supposed to be shockingly fresh and funny gets watered down. Did the filmmakers cast it this way on purpose, perhaps fearing that some people in this oh so politically correct world would not be amused by the premise?
Rating:
Summary: He loved well, but not wisely 3 1/2 Stars
Review: "Tadpole" is a very gentle story of unrequited love; but in this scenario we have a stepson Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford) longing for the mind, body and soul of his stepmother Eve (Sigourney Weaver). Gary Winick has directed this film with one eye on "The Graduate" and the other on "Oedipus Rex": a pretty potent combination.
Oscar Grubman is fifteen, infatuated with the writings of Voltaire and in love with life and learning as well as his stepmom. He has come home to NYC from boarding school for Thanksgiving and through a series of circumstances, mostly having to do with his consumption of large quantities of whiskey, ends up in bed with his stepmom's friend, Diane (Bebe Neuwirth). A large portion of this very short film is spent on Oscar attempting to keep Diane from telling Eve about the fling.
"Tadpole" made a big splash at Sundance last year and I think it was because it is so likeable as a film and in Aaron Stanford's performance as Oscar. "You can count on me" made a similar impact at Sundance a couple of years ago. So much of what is seen at Sundance is so downbeat and depressing that both of these life-affirming films must have seemed like a breath of fresh air to the judges.
With all that said, "Tadpole" is indeed a nice way to spend an hour or so: nothing major, nothing earth-shaking...just a quiet, smart, well acted film about the heart and where it can sometimes take us.
Rating:
Summary: Good but overrated
Review: A combination of "The Graduate" and "Rushmore" among other movies. This film is well-made and acted but doesn't really live up to the hype that I read in the press. There didn't seem to be enough substance to it - it was only 80 min long! I left the theatre thinking there could have been many other scenes added but they were probably edited out. There should have been a slow, steady build-up of tension. Still, pretty enjoyable. I thought Bebe Neuwirth was the stand-out.
Rating:
Summary: Cute
Review: A cute, though ultimately flawed, film. Excellent performances from the luminous Sigourney Weaver (who never seems to age!), the hysterical John Ritter (RIP), and the SEXY Bebe Neuwirth (who has yet to disappoint me in any of her work). The story is a little weird, a boy with a crush on his step mom, and yet completely believable. In Oscar, Aaron Grubman has found a quirky character that any precocious teenage male (such as myself) can relate to.
Rating: 
Summary: An absolute charmer
Review: A movie I've seen just a couple of days back at the Seattle International Film Festival, this reminded me most of The Graduate, simply because both films are about not quite mature boys who get seduced by older women. The comparison stops there, however, because as classic as The Graduate is, Tadpole has far more charm and humor. And the performance of Aaron Stanford, playing a 15-year-old boy in love with his French, sophisticated, beautiful stepmother (Weaver), is just as breakthrough as Dustin Hoffman's had been in its time. Tadpole, our hero, comes home from school for the holidays, quoting Voltaire and aspiring to greater heights of human emotion. A few setbacks at the beginning send him to alcohol and the arms of an older woman, his stepmother Eve's best friend. Quickly he finds himself caught in the intrigues and complexities of the adult world which he navigates with courage but no skill. The humor comes naturally from the story. As Oedipan as the tale may sound, the light, sympathetic way in which it was directed by Gary Winick with a 35-mm camera, and the natural resolution of the drama let us empathize with the protagonist and his quest. We've all been there, in a sense, wishing ourselves older and more experienced, while stuck in a 15-year-old body. The audience gave the movie an ovation - granted, a common occurrence at the festival. Still, not every movie gets one, and not every movie gets a prize at Sundance. Worth seeing twice.
Rating:
Summary: Not to be missed if you're stuck on a long flight
Review: About the most that can be said for "Tadpole" is that it is colourful, offbeat, and quirky, qualities which in more capable hands might compensate for its otherwise irredeemable shortcomings. Here, it is little more than false modesty. Indeed, I found it nosedivingly painful to watch Tadpole's director essentially make stone soup by plopping one good ingredient - John Ritter - into a tepid crock pot of bland cinematography and unseasoned writing. Innumerable awkward allusions are made to some cringingly obvious classic movies, a naive and gratuitous gesture that predictably backfires because this film is so very far below par. While Tadpole is undeniably well cast, it doesn't take a well-intentioned semi-retired film critic to see that the actors are constantly distracted, baffled, and undermined by the guy behind the camera who undoubtedly was constantly waving his hands this way and that, shouting silent directions and peppering the crew with psychodrama, only to throw up his arms in tizzying despair. I can empathize; it is incredibly difficult to maintain one's composure in the face of utter incompetence. Even the thankful restraints of a low budget and a limited release cannot adequately squash the director's grandiose, adolescent, film-student angst.
Rating:
Summary: I LIKE THE COMMENTARY TRACK
Review: Always have a commentary track. In cases like this movie, it's more interesting. As for the movie, it's just not that interesting. He likes his step mom. There's some comedy here. They did nothing with this. I guess they played it as a serious offering. I have a feeling that movie screenwriters are second rate TV people. You can't make a good comedy with dialogue alone. You must set up funny SITUATIONS. (I am a situational comedy writer.)
Rating:
Summary: The Little Tadpole That Wants To
Review: At seventy-seven minutes, "Tadpole" is an uncharacteristically short film, but one full of life and spirit. I enjoyed it very much without actually loving it. The acting is fine; Sigourney Weaver is as good as ever, John Ritter rings true as the befuddled, academic-minded father, and Bebe Neuwirth is terrific as a more humorous Mrs. Robinson. As the titular tadpole, Oscar, newcomer Aaron Stanford is sweetly sincere as a passionate, intelligent, and very serious teenage boy in love with his stepmother (Weaver) and seduced by her best friend (Neuwirth). There's nothing at all wrong with "Tadpole"; it just somehow doesn't have the emotional heft of a great film.
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