Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		2.0

Post Grad Blu-ray Movie Review

I wouldn’t have let this one graduate.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater January 17, 2010

Ah, I pity the poor, penniless souls who graduated from college during the height of last year’s recession. For recent grads, it’s hard enough finding employment during economically stable times— you’re young, inexperienced, and woefully under-qualified for your dream job. Even worse, you’ve been groomed from childhood to believe you’re a special snowflake, a one-of-a-kind talent, and suddenly you’re competing against drones with identical skill sets for a low-paying job on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder. For impossibly idealistic English majors—and I’m speaking from experience here—the options seem even more limited. Take a low-stress receptionist job and work on a novel between phone calls? (Guilty.) Put major life decisions on hold while teaching English in Japan? (Uh-huh.) Eek out a modest living writing magazine articles and movie reviews? (Why hello!) So, in the most general way, I relate to Post Grad, a comedy about life after college and the awkward search for meaning, purpose and, oh yeah, a job. Thematic relevancy aside, though, the film is an almost unendurable viewing experience, a tedious, incoherent excuse for a comedy that tries much too hard to be quirky and cute.

Come on Ryden, MySpace? Really? Did Facebook not sign off on the film?

Gilmore Girl alumni Alexis Bledel stars as Ryden Malby, a recent college graduate who is absolutely certain she’s going to land her dream job at Happerman & Browning Publishing. So sure, in fact, that she applies to rent an expensive apartment in downtown Los Angeles, right across the street from their shiny modern office building. Naturally, her interview doesn’t go as planned. A whole gaggle of black-suited applicants are vying for the position, Ryden bungles her interview talking about childhood ambitions, and her husky-voiced long-time nemesis Jessica (Catherine Reitman) steals the gig right out from under Ryden’s cute-as-a-button nose. Jobless, she moves back in with her “kooky” family, who are persistent in trying to out-weird the van- driving clan from Little Miss Sunshine. Michael Keaton scrapes the bottom of the barrel of his career as Ryden’s dad Walter, a goofy patriarch who tries to supplement his income by selling illegally procured belt buckles on the internet. Sexually frank grandma Maureen (Carroll Burnett) goes shopping for her own coffin. Little bro Hunter (Bobby Coleman) likes to lick kids’ heads and is desperate to compete in the neighborhood boxcar derby (said coffin gets transformed into a four- wheeled death trap). And flustered mom Carmella (Jane Lynch) just tries to hold it all together. There’s no lack of needless subplots here, most involving Walter, who runs over a neighbor’s cat, gets arrested for his buckle business, and generally hams it up as the dad who has a finger in every pie.

Meanwhile, Ryden pounds the pavement looking for a job—any job—in the film’s requisite job- hunting montage. For a while she even wears a ridiculous marching band uniform and shills suitcases at her dad’s luggage shop. Through it all, she’s supported by her BFF Adam (Friday Night Lights’ Zach Gilford), a Klondike Bar-loving musician who is desperate for her affections, and who may or may not go to law school in New York. Ryden is blind to Adam’s love, though, and her brief fling with a saucy Latin infomercial director (300’s Rodrigo Santoro), sends Adam packing for the Big Apple. In a twist that will surprise no one—really, no spoiler alert needed here—Ryden is eventually offered the position at Happerman & Browning, and she’s forced to choose between the job she’s always wanted and the guy she never realized she loved. In typical Hollywood fashion, a woman can’t be fulfilled until she’s head over 3-inch, office-appropriate heels. And this is where the film, which has already fallen apart, completely dissolves into a gooey mess of sentiment that will have feminists wincing and massaging their temples in frustration. But I don’t even want to get into Ryden’s stupid sacrifice of a career for a guy who will probably be too busy with law school to make their relationship work. Just know that Post Grad isn’t the women-empowering film it purports to be.

Let’s turn instead to how unbelievably inept the movie is on just about every level. The directionless narrative is steered sloppily from one tangentially related event to the next, the script sags under tender moments dense with manufactured emotion, and the film should come with a carton of cotton balls, because the dialogue is likely to induce earbleeds. At one point, thinking the film was almost over, I pressed pause to gauge how much longer I had endure Post Grad’s grating storyline. I was only 47 minutes into the film’s 88-minute run-time. Even the editing fails. I caught two major continuity errors, one of them a doozy. We see Adam onstage at a club, about to perform a song with his band. In one shot he’s plugging in his Les Paul electric guitar, and in the very next shot he’s delicately fingerpicking an acoustic. Magic! I’ve gotten used to seeing Michael Keaton in bad movies—oh how far Batman has fallen—but what are Demetri Martin and Fred Armisen doing in this, even in their small cameo roles? And why all the forced quirkiness? The film tries so hard to be the next sleeper, Sundance-style hit that it forgets to be emotionally engaging or genuinely funny. That uncomfortable space between college and the real world is such fertile ground for both comedy and drama—see The Graduate, for example—but Post Grad simply doesn’t dig deep enough.

Post Grad Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Post Grad graduates cum laude on Blu-ray with a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that, like a successful interviewee, has more strengths than weaknesses. Clarity is about average throughout; there are a few soft shots that seem to be the result of focus that's slightly off, but most of the time fine detail is easily apparent in the wizened wrinkles on Michael Keaton's face, the mesh of a trucker cap, the gauzy texture of one of Alexis Bledel's many blouses, and Rodridgo Santoro's two-day stubble. Colors are also strong and natural, from the bright red of Ryden's marching band uniform to grandma's turquoise scarf and jewelry, and skin tones are warm, if a bit over-tanned at times. That said, the cinematography is quite bland, suffering from that flat, overly bright lighting that seems to be a staple of all studio comedies. Though black levels are deep and contrast is tight, the image never really has dimensionality or presence. On a technical level, I didn't catch any banding, blocking, or artifacts, and the film's grain structure is fully intact and rarely noticeable.

Post Grad Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Post Grad's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is one of those adequate but wholly unmemorable mixes that get the point across, so to speak, albeit without much gusto or flourish. Aside from a few pop songs and Christopher Beck's rather dippy score, the rear channels get very little engagement. You'll hear a minimum of office ambience, some ocean roar at the beach, and a few scattered environmental sounds, but it's all kept at a fairly low volume and does little to really set the scene audio-wise. The music sounds modestly full, though, and the few sounds effects that the film calls for—like the metal-on-metal crunch of a car crash—are well-implemented and convincing, if lacking in heft. The priority here is clearly on the dialogue, which is bright, clean, and easily discernable. There's nothing in this mix to wow the sensitive ears of audiophiles, but there are no real audio mishaps either.

Post Grad Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Deleted and Alternate Scenes (SD, 13:41)
Includes nine scenes that you couldn't pay me to watch again, plus a music video for "Over and Over."

"One Day" Music Video by Jack Savoretti (SD, 3:35)
You know those movie tie-in music videos where they awkwardly cut in clips from the film? This is probably the worst one I've ever seen.

Real Life Advice with Alexis Bledel and Zach Gilford (SD, 4:20)
Bledel and Gilford sit on some comfy looking white chairs and talk about their own post- graduation experiences.

Know Your Strengths: Career Advice (SD, 6:01)
Marcus Buckingham, author of Find Your Strongest Life, gives us his inspirational Tony Robbins schtick about how to become a happy, successful career woman. And no, it doesn't involve leaving your job to take a chance with your maybe boyfriend in New York.

How Not to Get a Job (SD, 3:29)
A top ten list of clips from the film showing everything that Ryden did wrong.

A Guide to Moving Back Home (SD, 2:58)
Likewise, this is a kind of checklist of of things that you should do if you ever have to move back in with your folks, illustrated with clips from the film.

Dress for Success (SD, 2:03)
Director Vicky Jenson, costume designer Alexandra Welker, and Alexis Bledel say a few words about the clothing in the film.

Find Your Match! The Best Job for You
This is one of those personality quizzes where you answer a few questions and the results tell you what sort of job you should have. I got "Fashion Designer - Little Miss Trendsetter" and the descriptions read, "You prefer the finer things in life and are happiest among the beautiful people! You know that it takes hard work to realize your dreams and unique style shines through in everything you do." OMG, it knows me so well!

What Not to Wear
Man, will these bonus features ever cease? This is another quiz, one that tests your corporate fashion sense. I got "Fashionista! You're on an upwardly mobile path to success—fashionably! You've got the smarts and style to go straight to the top." Why, thank you.

Post Grad Confidential (SD, 13:56)
Screenwriter Kelly Fremon and producer Ivan Reitman discuss the origin of the script, the six or seven re-writes (no surprise there), and the difficulty of achieving a balance between drama and comedy. I'd say.

Trailers (1080p, 10:45 total)
Includes trailers for Aliens in the Attic, Fame, Amelia, All About Steve, and Whip It!

Post Grad Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I like to imagine that the actors in this screenshot are looking down at a Blu-ray copy of Post Grad that they're about to bury in the ground, so as to save at least one person from having to sit through 88-minutes of torture so effective that it should be used instead of waterboarding to pry information out of terrorist detainees. Except, I'm sure there's some clause in the Geneva Conventions solely about the misuse of Post Grad. Stay away if at all possible.