The Graduates (2008) - By Duane L. Martin

Film Reviews: The Graduates (2008) - By Duane L. Martin
Posted on Wednesday, April 01, 2009 @ 18:32:00 Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

Wow, I can't believe it! I actually had quite a few good movies to review this month! Unfortunately, I also had one that made me want to give up reviewing for something a little less painful, like cage fighting or something. Fortunately, that wasn't this film. This movie was actually really good, especially for the type of a movie that it was. I think it would help if I tell you what it's about though before I tell you why it was so good. So here goes...

This is one of those films where you have a group of high school seniors heading out to Senior Week for one last big bash before graduation, and also for one last great time together before they all go off to college and likely won't see each other all that much anymore. They each have different goals and aspirations for what they want to get out of this trip. Some achieve it, some don't, but most seem to have some revelations about their lives along the way. Since this movie has such a huge cast, I'm going to list all the major players and talk about them some. This will take a while...

Here's who we got:

Ben (Rob Bradford): Ben wants to hook up with Annie, the hottest girl in school, and also the biggest bitch. He's had a crush on her since the third grade, yet he fails to realize that his super cute best friend Megs is totally in love with him. This almost costs him his relationship with Megs in the end. He's also a virgin and wants to rectify that situation, which he almost gets to do with Annie, until they're interrupted by her douche bag college "sort of" boyfriend. Rob Bradford is not only very likable, he's a great actor and has a bright future ahead of him. I don't know why, but for some reason, mentally, I keep associating him with Fred Savage from The Wonder Years. I couldn't even tell you why. There's just something about him.

Andy (Blake Merriman): Andy is one of those bland, milquetoast (holy crap, did I just use that word in a review? Wow, vocabulary rules!!!) kind of guys who's afraid to take any chances in life. He has this girlfriend named Melissa that he's been with for two and a half years and he still hasn't had sex with her. He also won't go into the water past his knees because any deeper would be out of his "comfort zone". Well his girlfriend is tired of waiting and he catches her with another guy, which leads him to re-examine his life and realize that he has to start taking more chances. Blake Merriman was extremely believable in this role. If I didn't know he was playing a character, I'd have sworn he was actually like that in real life.

Mattie (Nick Vergara): Mattie is just one of those cool guys who's there for his friends and is just laid back and generally easy going, while still being Johnny on the spot when one of his friends has a problem. He's also a realist and will tell it like it is, and at one point even forces Nickie to face up to his "in your face" personality issues and the troubles they're always causing him. Nick Vergara is a phenomenal actor. I can't believe he only has two credits listed on IMDB. This guy has an insanely bright future ahead of him as an actor, and I really hope to see him land roles in a lot more films in the coming years. His style reminds me a lot of another actor, and it's really irritating me because I can picture the guy in my head but I can't think of what I've seen him in or what his name is, which is unbelievably infuriating.

Nickie (Mike Pennacchio): Nickie is the screw up of the group. His father's some well off lawyer, but Nickie runs around acting like a total douche and when he's not being an idiot, he's trying to start fights with random people. This eventually gets him in trouble as Mattie forces him to face up to some guys he tried to start a fight with, leading to an accident which puts him in the hospital with a messed up arm, courtesy of Andy freaking out behind the wheel. Mike Pennacchio did a really good job in his role. I think we all went to school with jerks like this, and Mike pretty much summed up that type of personality beautifully.

Josh (Josh Adam Davis): Josh is Ben's older brother. He's 25 now and has been to lots of Senior Weeks. This year he's taking his brother and his friends to his. So far he hasn't done much with his life, but at least he's still enjoying his youth. Josh Adam Davis is another one who's likable. He really pulls off the cool older brother well, and there actually feels like there's an older brother / younger brother relationship between him and Ben. The naturalness he brings to the role and the ease with which he fits into his character's familial relationship is refreshing and really nice to see.

Jesse Swomley (Josh Folan): This is Annie's douche bag boyfriend from college. He's the typical egotistical college jock type who's more attitude than anything else. Josh didn't have a huge role in this film. He showed up near the end, but made his mark by really playing up the whole jerky jock character perfectly. If he hasn't played his role so well, he wouldn't have even warranted note in this review because of his limited role in the film, but he did such a great job, I felt like he deserved a mention.

Stuart (Max Lodge): Stuart wasn't really introduced as a character per se, he just kinda showed up and suddenly he was part of the film. He was the guy who was throwing the Senior Week parties at his house, and he sort of migrated from simply being the party host into being a full blown actual character with his own part to play in the film. It was almost like his part was beefed up as an afterthought, but regardless, he was a really great character and actually quite fun to watch. Fortunately, his involvement, albeit as a side character, picked up fairly early on, so he actually got some good screen time and became a notable member of the cast. Max Lodge is, as is the case with most of the cast, is enjoyable to watch and really brought a natural feel to his role. He comes off as a good guy who's rebelling against something, but no one seems to know what it is...not even him. His credits on IMDB are very limited, but his naturalness, likability and skill as an actor should allow him to carve out quite a career in film.

Annie (Stephanie Lynn): The hot redheaded bitch that everyone wants, including Ben who's had a crush on her since the third grade. She is really hot, but she's also a waste of space, air, sperm or whatever other noun you'd like to tag on the end of that. She accepts Ben's advances but then blows him off whenever her college ex-boyfriend calls or shows up. Shallow in the extreme, it's hard to understand why anyone would want her in the first place for more than just a one night stand or the occasional booty call. Stephanie Lynn really nailed her role as shallow bitch. There's nothing to like at all about her character except how she looks, yet she doesn't play it as a super bitch, which would have been the easy way to play it. Instead, she plays it as someone who's utterly shallow and only concerned with herself and her own gratification and uses her looks to manipulate people. I think Stephanie could play the good girl too, but her real forte seems to be playing the shallow bitch type.

Megs (Laurel Reese): Megs is Ben's best friend and like a sister to him. Unfortunately for her, she's also seriously in love with him and he's too blind to see it. Laurel didn't have a huge role in this movie, but she did have a key role. Unfortunately, the way her relationship with Ben played out was rather disappointing. Not because of anything she did mind you, but because that's simply the way the film's story played out. Just a note here to the film makers on this. I know it's become trendy in films to not have that cookie cutter happy ending all the time because it feels like you're bucking the cliches, and while that's ok sometimes, it's very dependent on one key element - the actors playing the parts. "Wait...the actors? Really? Not the story?" you might be saying to yourself. Yes, the actors, and this movie is a prime example of it. If you had ordinary actors that people don't really care all that much about, then it wouldn't matter if you had the non-cliched ending. In a case like this though where it's so easy to care about both of these people, not having that happy ending is a really downer to an otherwise great story. Sometimes, the happy ending is actually the better ending, and in this case it would have been. Laurel Reese is super cute and just wonderful as Ben's sweet best friend. She was made to play this type of role, and I don't think they could have made a better casting choice.

Brian (Brian W. Siebert): Brian is Josh's friend and tags along with them to senior week. He's one of those oddball characters who's just quirky. He walks around in a fedora, sunglasses and a white tank top with a goatee that makes him look like a young Brad Pitt. Honestly that's all I could think about when he was on screen was that he looked like a young Brad Pitt. Anyway, his character didn't get much screen time, but simply because he was Josh's friend and tagged along on the trip, I thought he should be mentioned. Brian did a good job with the part, but it would have been nice if they had given him a little more to do in the film. He actually disappeared a while after the movie started, only to resurface later on for a short bit in one scene with Josh.

Rachel (Rachel Kiri Walker): Rachel is one of Megs' friends. She only has a small part really, but her main goal is to have sex before Senior Week is over because she's ready and she doesn't want to wait until college. Rachel Kiri Walker wasn't given much to do in this film, which is a shame. Not only is she really hot, but she's a phenomenal actress. What little she was given to do, she really ran with. It's kind of unusual for a reviewer to be so stricken by a minor character, but the quality of her acting really surprised me and made her very memorable. Sadly, she's another one with very limited credits on IMDB. I really hope to see more of her in the future. She's got a great career ahead of her if she can just land the right roles and get something that will give her serious screen time.

Mike "The Resonator" Resniski (Zak Williams): Mike showed up later in the film. He's a 28 year old guy that Josh went to school with. Josh spots him out and about and they have a beer together. Their conversation reveals that their lives have taken totally separate paths. Mike is big into golfing and has a bitchy wife, a bitchy mother-in-law and a baby. His conversation with Josh makes him realize how much he hates his life and wants his youth back. Zak Williams didn't have a huge part in the film, but he had a very notable part. He feels like so many of us who have felt their youth slip away from them without even realizing it had happened. One day they wake up with that, "How the hell did I get here?" feeling. He played his role perfectly, and I really felt for this guy. I hate to sound like a broken record, but Zak Williams is a really likeable actor. The great thing about him is, I could also see him taking up the spoiled rich bastard role in some other film with equal adroitness. (Woohoo!!! There's that vocabulary again!)

This film had so many characters and so much going on, there was really no other fair way to write this review than to mention as many of the notables as possible and to talk about their place and situation in the grand scheme of the film. There were some other side characters who also did a great job, but their roles were so small I'm not going to get into them here.

The Graduates was a surprisingly good film. I did feel like a few of the characters kind of got lost in the shuffle here and there, but that's to be expected in a film with this many characters and this much going on. Still considering how much there was going on with all the different aspects of the story, a film like this one could have easily become a total mess, losing any and all direction. This film however held everything together nicely and presents us with a coherent story about a time in our lives that was a huge period of transition for all of us. The end of high school is the end of one era and the beginning of a new one, and I think that those of us who've been through it, will all be able to identify with these characters and what they're going through.

This film is currently available for pre-sale and will be out on DVD in May with lots of great special features. If you love great independent films, then I seriously suggest picking up a copy.

If you'd like to find out more about this film or to order a copy for yourself, you can check out the film's website at http://www.thegraduatesmovie.com.