TADPOLE
"...ingratiating romantic coming-of-age comedy...the surprise of this
short and inexpensively made indie (originally shot on digital video)
is its authority and good cheer, the very accessibility that won it
the 2002 Sundance Directing Award...[Bebe] Neuwirth nails the role
of a mischief-prone, 40-year-old New York single woman with her usual
precise comic aim...[Sigoruney] Weaver brings honest, unguarded softness
to the often underappreciated character of a fortysomething New York
second wife and kind stepmother...[Aaron] Stanford does a splendid
job of projecting the fluid sexual and emotional development of a
younger boy-to-man." --Lisa Schwarzbaum,
Entertainment Weekly
"Its only purpose is to tell a simple story entertainingly and thoroughly,
and it knows how to keep a promise with precision. Best of all, it's
only 75 minutes long. My kind of movie....If an updated, socially
aware J.D. Salinger suddenly surfaced from literary exile to publish
a brand-new story, 'Tadpole' would be it...'Tadpole has the rumpled,
dog-eared page marks of a New Yorker short story on film-meticulously
constructed, intelligently conceived, neatly composed and pointless
after the final fade." --Rex
Reed, The New York Observer
"...a lighthearted, modest coming-of-age vignette, shot in grimy DV
(presumably spit-shined for its Miramax release) and barely feature-length
at 77 minutes...as sweet and unassuming a film as they come..." --Jessica
Winter, The Village Voice
"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)... Ms. Neuwirth, whose leggy, smirking bravado recalls the
younger Anjelica Huston at full gallop, more or less steals the movie.
Her Diane, a sexy, self-assured single woman with a rebellious streak,
gives "Tadpole" its erotic snap...When it is tangled in erotic intrigue,
'Tadpole' is a delicious bonbon of a film. But in other scenes, the
movie feels underwritten and slapped together...the movie's slack,
cynical ending feels not only like a betrayal of its protagonist but
also like a larger failure of imagination." --Stephen
Holden, The New York Times
"'Tadpole' is a sophisticated, funny and good-natured treat, slight
but a pleasure. It is also a movie with a serious problem...the uneven
look of 'Tadpole' is a detriment to its enjoyment, even to those willing
to overlook technical deficiencies for the sake of fine material and
performances...Exterior daylight scenes are especially poor, not to
mention unflattering. 'Tadpole' and its cast warranted better." --Kevin
Thomas, The Los Angeles Times
"Technically rough, albeit by design, but packed with some of the
year's best performances, including newcomer Stanford, veterans Weaver
and Neuwirth, and - don't laugh - John Ritter." --Bilge
Ebiri, New York
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