Post Grad 2009

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The Proposal and The Ugly Truth only wish they had some of the charm of unpretentious diversions such as Bandslam or Post Grad. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: Post Grad is all about what happens after you get your diploma, but the movie itself doesn't even earn an E for effort, let alone make the grade. Read more

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Note to the writer Kelly Fremon: Is Ryden postgraduation or postmortem? Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Sweet but instantly forgettable; a fantasy version of post-college life carefully structured to offend no one -- and intrigue no one. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: When a film whose cast includes Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch, Fred Armisen, Craig Robinson, Demetri Martin, and the now rarely seen Carol Burnett can't scare up more than a smattering of laughs, the patient was never meant to live in the first place. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's pleasant enough, which is an OK description for a summer afternoon, but not for a movie. At least not one with ambition beyond the standard fare. Read more

Laura Bennett, Boston Globe: A disjointed patchwork of zany character sketches lacking in coherence and credibility. Read more

Cliff Doerksen, Chicago Reader: Director Vicky Jenson has a sitcom script on her hands and proceeds accordingly. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: I would like to take this occasion to lodge a complaint. There is no valid reason, none in the observable universe, why mainstream romantic comedies must adhere to the same script. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Post Grad may be the strangest film of 2009. Unfortunately, not strange in a good way, strange in a bad way. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Alexis Bledel plays a Ms. Sunshine who's fresh out of college and unable to find work, and thus -- conveniently for the uninspired makers of this dismayingly conservative dramedy -- she's temporarily bunking back home Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: A joyless fluffball about after-college job woes with a dispiriting message for smart young women. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It has no idea what it wants to be; as a result, it gets nothing right. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: Post Grad is an annoying, tedious little film that touts a young woman's desire to fulfill her dreams, at least until she drops them and everything else and runs across the country to follow a boy. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: The film's typically Hollywood message is timeless: If you're a woman, your dreams and plans are meaningless without a man. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The story that writer Kelly Fremon wants to tell in Post Grad -- recent college grad strikes out at finding a job, moves back home with her wacky family and finds true love -- is pretty tired. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Bledel brings a sweet, steady presence, but this sort of minor project is a step backwards. It's high time she graduated on to bigger and better things. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: Excessive niceness may be an unfair charge to lob at a movie, but Post Grad is so swaddled in good intentions that it's like taking a very short journey cushioned on all sides by air bags. That are stuffed with cotton candy. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Post Grad is a Devil Wears Prada without the devil, a Reality Bites without any bite -- and not much reality, either. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Ostensibly a comedy, and a feeble and innocuous one at that, Post Grad is one of those what-were-they-thinking? studio productions that should have been shelved back in the script stage. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Post Grad isn't funny, surprising, or insightful enough to provoke more than a ho-hum reaction. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: A feel-good movie that made me smile a lot. Read more

Joe Coscarelli, Salon.com: Post-Grad finds Alexis Bledel sinking into the quicksand of typecasting, playing nearly the same role she perfected during seven seasons as the ambitious Rory on Gilmore Girls. Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: After watching Post Grad, you may wonder whether Hollywood will ever stop making generic comedies with zero tolerance for originality. Read more

Globe and Mail: What it eventually becomes is not so much a treatise on the inequities of the workplace as another romantic comedy, light on the comedy and not much heavier on the romance. Read more

Greg Quill, Toronto Star: Post Grad deserves a failing grade. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Post Grad is a collection of unfunny, insipid and predictable vignettes in search of a movie. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: As fiction characters go, Ryden seems as dull as they come, making it hard to muster much sympathy for her plight. Read more

Vadim Rizov, Village Voice: Post Grad tries to do three things at once -- and half-hits the mark on only one. Read more

Dan Kois, Washington Post: A movie that never quite succeeds in capturing a generation adrift. Read more