Tadpole

Mrs Robinson has many spiritual daughters. In the emotional nursery where toyboys are the playthings of mature women, she was the archetype - introduced to us, of course, by The Graduate in 1967. This wry comedy is a variant on that theme of inter-generational lust; a low-budget, digital-video rendering of the obsession felt by 15-year-old Oscar (Aaron Stanford) for his 40-something stepmother Eve (Sigourney Weaver) and the fallout from his unexpected liaison with her best friend Diane (Bebe Neuwirth). The film's brevity (it clocks in at just 78 minutes) means that the one-liners come thick and fast, however that very economy gives the movie an offhand attitude that is sometimes at odds with the uniformly strong performances. Character and situation seem neglected and as for the Voltaire-quoting Oscar, he's far too self-confident for the audience ultimately to feel any sympathy for him. Still, Gary Winick won the director's award at the Sundance film festival and demonstrated a potential that was curtailed by his untimely death in 2011.