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CONSENSUS
Harvard Man is a pretentious, incoherent mess.
CAST & CREW
Adrian Grenier, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Eric Stoltz
Directed by James Toback
more...
SYNOPSIS
This innovative drama from writer and director James Toback (BUGSY, BLACK AND WHITE) follows the travails of Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier), a Harvard student determined to live life to the fullest and find the ultimate truth. more...
MPAA RATING
R, drug use, language, and some strong sexuality
RUNTIME
1 hour, 39 minutes
RELEASE DATES
Theatrical: Apr 12, 2002
Video: Oct 29, 2002
RELEASE COMPANY
Cowboy Booking International
GENRE
Dramas, Suspense, Thriller, Mafia
OFFICIAL SITE
• The Official Harvard Man Site
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TRAILER & MEDIA
TIDBITS
SUBMIT/EDIT ARTICLE
SUBMIT USER REVIEW
FORUM
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 "Grenier is terrific, bringing an unforced, rapid-fire delivery to Toback’s Heidegger- and Nietzsche-referencing dialogue."
-- Chuck Wilson, L.A. WEEKLY
 "A frustrating 'tweener' -- too slick, contrived and exploitative for the art houses and too cynical, small and decadent for the malls."
-- Doris Toumarkine, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL
"Might have been played as a glum cautionary tale, but in Toback's hands it becomes a lark--flashy, florid and blissfully over-the-top."
-- Frank Swietek, ONE GUY'S OPINION
"An overstylized, puréed mélange of sex, psychology, drugs and philosophy. Sometimes entertaining, sometimes indulgent -- but never less than pure wankery."
-- Brent Simon, ENTERTAINMENT TODAY
"Unintelligible, poorly acted, brain-slappingly bad, Harvard Man is ludicrous enough that it could become a cult classic."
-- Michael Phillips, CITYSEARCH
"Heavy with flabby rolls of typical Toback machinations."
-- Joe McGovern, MATINEE MAGAZINE
"For those who accept the offbeat premise, the film ultimately delivers a satisfying dramatic exploration of the ways we create ourselves."
-- Sheri Linden, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
"Harvard Man is a semi-throwback, a reminiscence without nostalgia or sentimentality."
-- Andy Klein, DALLAS OBSERVER
"If it's seldom boring, well, it's also rarely coherent."
-- Marshall Fine, JOURNAL NEWS
"...a bland, pretentious mess."
-- David Cornelius, AMAZING COLOSSAL WEBSITE
"Gambling and throwing a basketball game for money isn't a new plot -- in fact Toback himself used it in Black and White. But Toback's deranged immediacy makes it seem fresh again."
-- Jeffrey M. Anderson, SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
Click to read the article.
-- David Perry, CINEMA-SCENE.COM
Click to read the article.
-- FILM THREAT
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"Pretentious editing ruins a potentially terrific flick."
-- Chuck Schwartz, CRANKY CRITIC®
"There's a certain niche audience that will eat up Harvard Man -- but whether that's the mob-movie set, the college-movie set, or the sex-movie set, I really have no idea."
-- Christopher Null, FILMCRITIC.COM
"[Toback's] fondness for fancy split-screen, stuttering editing and pompous references to Wittgenstein and Kirkegaard ... blends uneasily with the titillating material."
-- Maitland McDonagh, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE
"A semi-autobiographical film that's so sloppily written and cast that you cannot believe anyone more central to the creation of Bugsy than the caterer had anything to do with it."
-- Shawn Levy, OREGONIAN
"Fans of so-bad-they're-good cinema may find some fun in this jumbled mess."
-- Phil Hall, FILM THREAT
"I think it was Plato who said, 'I think, therefore I know better than to rush to the theatre for this one.'"
-- Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone, THEMOVIECHICKS.COM
"A cautionary tale about the grandiosity of a college student who sees himself as impervious to a fall."
-- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, SPIRITUALITY AND HEALTH
"The long-delayed flick's weak story and poor casting shows that Gellar is too cute to be Corleone; Adams is too high-pitched to be tenured; and Gayheart is still too whatever to care about."
-- E! ONLINE
Click to read the article.
-- REEL.COM
-- Click to read the article.
-- Cynthia Fuchs, POPMATTERS
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ROTTEN 43%
Avg. Rating: 5.9/10 |
"It's exactly the kind of movie Toback's detractors always accuse him of making."
-- Stephanie Zacharek, SALON.COM
"The attempt is courageous, even if the result is wildly uneven."
-- Philip Wuntch, DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"A reality-snubbing hodgepodge."
-- Megan Turner, NEW YORK POST
"In a summer of clones, Harvard Man is something rare and riveting: a wild ride that relies on more than special effects."
-- Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE
"A crisply made movie that is no more than mildly amusing."
-- Kevin Thomas, LOS ANGELES TIMES
"By turns pretentious, fascinating, ludicrous, provocative and vainglorious."
-- Gene Seymour, NEWSDAY
"It has a caffeinated, sloppy brilliance, sparkling with ideas you wish had been developed with more care, but animated by an energy that puts the dutiful efforts of more disciplined grade-grubbers to shame."
-- A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES
"A characteristically engorged and sloppy coming-of-age movie."
-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"This movie is so bad, that it's almost worth seeing because it's so bad."
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER
"Putting it all out there and shaping it into some kind of contained whole is something else again. Although that never quite happens here, there's plenty to appreciate."
-- Michael Rechtshaffen, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
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-- Click to read the article.
-- Elizabeth Blozan, ZAP2IT.COM
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* Who are the Approved Tomatometer Critics?
* Mouse over a tomato icon for a publication's original rating. Original rating not available for every publication.
* In fairness to critics whose last name begins with a letter at the end of the alphabet, certain pages are sorted in reverse order, z-a.
* Certain "Harvard Man" article data provided by the Movie Review Query Engine.
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