Now as iconic as any great of the 1960s, The Graduate remains, by far, the most joyful treatise on the divide between the American young and old.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 8, 2025

The camera and editing moves differently than other movies of its day and the deliberate uses of light, shadow, angle, and focus amaze me to no end.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Oct 14, 2024

A withering dramedy that pulls no punches as it builds to one of the most iconic and haunting endings ever put to screen, The Graduate remains as clear-eyed as ever.

| Jul 25, 2024

A brilliant and funny satire on the affluent, materialistic society.

| May 1, 2024

The Graduate engages its audience almost exclusively at the level of events until the grandly satisfying conclusion, when its problems (Benjamin's problems) seem to arrive at a happy solution.

| Jun 23, 2023

You really can’t miss Bancroft’s iconic performance, but I wouldn’t blame anybody for feeling a bit disappointed by the film itself. The years have not been kind to it and it now seems shallow and overly calculated.

| Feb 1, 2023

It may not be the most tight-knit script and some key character relationships are underwritten. But anchored by some stellar performances and a great soundtrack, it’s still a lot of fun.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 21, 2022

I suggest that you see The Graduate for fun, and the hell with the next American cinema coming of age.

| Aug 10, 2022

Something that any lover of American Cinema should see.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 6, 2022

It’s hard to say which is best -- the direction, the script, or the performances by Dustin Hoffman, Katherine Ross, and Anne Bancroft. Together they achieve a major American film triumph.

| Mar 2, 2022

...a striking and thoroughly entertaining effort that boasts one of Hoffman's best performances.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 8, 2021

Even from the opening shot (after the credits), it's apparent that the cinematography and dialogue are tinged with something peculiar and undeniably unique.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 24, 2020

Still potent, still hilarious.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 25, 2020

Every cinematic cliche, every formula plot device, every pseudo-intellectual ploy, every sentimental gimmick, every prefabricated, sure-fire boxoffice ingredient designed to empty pocketbooks and dampen hankies is present in this despicable movie.

| Feb 3, 2020

Pretends to be chic and modern, but its hero is a bewildered young dropout who cannot BEGIN to say what he dislikes about the view from his rubber raft.

| Jan 30, 2020

Over fifty years after its theatrical release, comedy-drama The Graduate manages to hold up as one of the best films of all time.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 9, 2020

All this chopped steak is a give-away on the new tone in films; unless the material is thoroughly banal, it isn't considered chic.

| Jun 19, 2019

Through Dustin Hoffman's star-making performance, through Simon & Garfunkel's now iconic soundtrack, through Mike Nichols' canny direction, The Graduate captures youth at a crossroads like no other film.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 5, 2019

Even though it captures the look and sound of much of the contemporary California scene so skillfully, The Graduate seems to me basically a copout.

| Mar 13, 2018

Watching it today I can appreciate the historical significance of The Graduate, and Mike Nichols' direction is sharp and stylish. Yet I'm ambivalent about the film.

| Jun 27, 2017