One Paragraph Movie Review: The Graduate

One hundred and ninety-eighth film: The Graduate, an eternally unusual movie about an idiot who makes dumb decisions and the beautiful women who inexplicably like him anyway. I don’t think you’re supposed to like any of the people in this movie, but I hope I can be excused for loving every stitch Anne Bancroft wears, albeit briefly. For an ice-cold, neurotic alcoholic guilty of both sexual harassment and gaslighting, she sure dresses nice. Here’s to your wardrobe, Mrs Robinson. And as for Dustin Hoffman’s character Benjamin, while the intention may be to explore the confusion and disaffectedness of youth, his story — being nonchalantly bullied and seduced by his mother’s most attractive friend just prior to stalking her daughter — feels very much like a rich kid not knowing what to do with his spare time. It’s by pure luck and visually exciting camerawork and editing, then, that make these stupid dumb glamorous passionless idiots the kind of people I want to watch. This movie is implausible and deeply odd on every viewing, but my plan is to continue to view it. Four significant tan lines out of five.