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Tadpole
Miramax Films


7.6

based on 31 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 11 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, mature thematic elements and language

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Aaron Stanford, John Ritter, Bebe Neuwirth, Robert Iler, Adam LeFevre, and Peter Appel

A romantic comedy about a precocious young man who falls for an older woman.

GENRE(S):	Romance
WRITTEN BY:	Heather McGowan Niels Mueller
DIRECTED BY:	Gary Winick
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 21, 2003 Video: January 21, 2003 Theatrical: July 19, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	78 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

It's a funny, fearless, poignant, spectacular performance. Come to think of it, those words could well apply to the entirety of Tadpole.

100

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Doesn't need the passage of time to become a classic. It's one already.

100

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Short and sweet, small and smart, Tadpole is the oasis in the desert of dopey summer blockbusters - an uproarious, sophisticated coming-of-age comedy so flawlessly written, acted and directed it seems practically miraculous.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Tadpole may be small, but it's something special -- a cheeky comedy knockout.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A smart sex comedy that successfully swims upstream to spawn and score.

USA Today Claudia Puig

An irreverent and witty comedy in which the events aren't predictable but are well paced.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Has nearly perfect pitch.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

It's an appealing mix of an old Hollywood movie world of Upper East Side sophisticates with the character-driven spontaneity of a modern American indie, all very slight and light but deftly done.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Where ''Rushmore'' surprises and delights with its spiky depiction of sprawling American idiosyncrasy, Tadpole's more urbane, less complicated charms are specifically made in New York City.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

As sweet and unassuming a film as they come, embraces both perspectives -- it's sympathetic to the batty throes of a first infatuation, but affably demurs at indulging them.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Shot in just two weeks with a hand-held digital camera, the movie often looks frayed around the edges. Yet it has a soulful heart and a clear grasp of its rarefied milieu (Manhattan upper-level moneyed academia).

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Stanford and Neuwirth are performers of such nuance that a mere glimpse of his body language and her bawdy language speak volumes about the difference between love and sex, the ideal and the real.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Witty, adult treatment of an offbeat subject: a pubescent boy's infatuation with an older woman.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Armed with a witty script, Winick and the actors so confidently ply the Oedipal waters that the comedy seems sweetly chaste.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Neuwirth vamps up a storm: She's like some silent-screen hellion sending lust rays out of bemused eyes.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Oscar's life has the potential to become a Greek tragedy, but Winick keeps things light enough that it resolutely stays a comedy.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

The great Bebe Neuwirth should apply for a patent on her slow and dirty smile. The scene in which she introduces her new conquest to her girlfriends over tea, and pretty well pimps him to any takers, is worth the price of a ticket. [29 July 2002, p. 92]

Film Threat Ron Wells

Not a film that will change your life. It instead proves that shooting your movie with cheap technology doesn't mean it can't be fun or entertaining. In the end, that's enough.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Though sloppily structured and sometimes dangerously flimsy (not to mention truncated at a mere 78 minutes), Tadpole has an unforced charm that compensates for the absence of more traditional cinematic virtues.

New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson

Overcomes its visual hideousness with a sharp script and strong performances.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

It requires nothing more of a viewer than quiet complaisance, which is rewarded in turn by pleasant scenery, a few mild laughs, and the dependably involving presence of Weaver and, especially, Neuwirth.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

Smart and sophisticated entertainment, whatever its shortcomings, and it deserves to be encouraged. Not the behaviour it portrays, of course; but the worldly common sense of knowing that most people have a secretly ambiguous view of sexual prohibitions, and that this is the fertile ground of great comedy.

Chicago Tribune Loren King

But as likable as it is, Tadpole is hardly a maturing woman's revenge movie, but another male fantasy -- that of the sexually nurturing mother figure. If only all coming-of-age sexual experiences could be as healthy and wholesome.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

The witty coming-of-age film is marred by an uneven, digitally shot look, a disservice to its first-rate cast.

Chicago Reader Joshua Rothkopf

Both Stanford and Neuwirth are excellent in tricky parts, yet screenwriters Heather McGowan and Niels Mueller abruptly end the story just as the characters are arriving at some uncomfortable showdowns.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Tadpole was shot on digital video, and the images often look smeary and blurry, to the point of distraction. Then again, in a better movie, you might not have noticed.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

I praised "Lovely & Amazing," which also features a romance between an adult woman and a teenage boy. But "Lovely & Amazing" is about events that happen in a plausible world (the adult is actually arrested). Tadpole wants only to be a low-rent "Graduate" clone.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The big problem with it is that the setup is treated as just that, a scheme around which many things that are intended to be funny (but aren't very) are packed like ice around a fish.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Written in wisps and watery double-entendres by Heather McGowan and Niels Mueller, and the movie is so benign that its proceedings are beside the point.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This breezy romantic trifle isn't nearly as clever as it imagines itself to be, but it's smart enough not to take itself too seriously.

Time Richard Schickel

This is, alas, one weary ride--77 minutes that sometimes feel like that many hours.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Yori D. gave it a 10:
Was initially slightly irritated but got over the digital camera shooting. this is not your typical film. it's funny;subtle,adult and thoughtfully f-u-n-n-y.the performances are excellent and loved the quotes and that the film kept it's mood and integrity instead of becoming "dramatic" for the sake of it....special movie that i will recommend with a great big grin.

Nolan B. gave it a 3:
Falls into the same trappings as Igby. This Tadpole never makes it out of the stream.

Brian L. gave it a 10:
A wonderful movie. It's a shame it won't get the attention it deserves. There's not a single boring or dull moment in the entire movie. We need more movies that assume the viewer actually knows something.

Harvey V. gave it a 6:
I know "The Graduate". And "Tadpole" is no "Graduate".

Chad S. gave it a 6:
Aaron Stanford would make an excellent Holden Caulfield. "Tadpole" made me long for a mounting of the J.D. Salinger classic when Oscar(Stanford) roams around the New York exteriors, looking thoughtful and forlorn. Stanford is good as Oscar Grubman but "Tadpole" plays matters too safe when it prevents us from feeling sorry for the potential victim and anger towards the seducer because the filmmakers didn't want the risk of having an unlikable protagonist. "Tadpole" would've been a lot more interesting if Oscar had to deal with the ramifications of his deadly crush. Instead, we get a cute ending to a smart but punch-pulling movie. If Todd Solondz wanted to make an audience-friendly film, yet maintain some of his old edge, it would look an awful like "Tadpole". (If the name Bebe Neuwirth to you is synonymous with Lilith Crane, you have no inkling about her bottomless resevoir of comedic talents.)

Mikey G gave it an 8:
Easily the funniest movie I've seen all year. However, this is intelligent funny. Some people don't get that. Bebe Neuwirth is friggen' hot as the stepmom's best friend! 40 my ass! The actor portraying the title character is very good and reminded me of Topher Grace. Why didn't he get this role? In any case, he does a great job. John Ritter is also excellent as the father. Not long at all, this movie flies by. A bit of nudity would have helped, specially from Bebe. However, this movie is still very worthwhile to check out if you like to laugh with your brain.

Michael F. gave it an 8:
Really really fun, funny, smart and cute. It's a really good indie. It's touching and quick. It really captures that upper east side feeling that I miss so so much from movies. John Ritter is very good. Aaron Standford is great. Sigourney Weaver is fine. Robert Iler is surprisingly terrible, just completely not believable. It's quick and fun.

Tadpole Miramax Films

Tadpole
Miramax Films