The target audience for "Post Grad" was still in diapers when Michael Keaton was riding high in things like Beetlejuice (though, honestly, there isn't anything like Beetlejuice except Beetlejuice).

No matter.

 

 

In this minor but agreeable romantic comedy, Keaton, playing the heroine's eccentric father, makes the most of a backyard burial involving a dead cat and a pizza box with the menu still taped to the outside. The makeshift kitty coffin does not quite fit the hole dug for the occasion.

Watching Keaton do what he can to fix the situation, while the pet's owner watches, quietly appalled, you're reminded how much this hugely talented actor can do with a simple setup, a few deft physical maneuvers and unpredictable timing.

The "Post Grad" director is Vicky Jenson, who comes out of animation. Her live-action technique at this point is strictly point-and-shoot, adding little visual distinction to first-time screenwriter Kelly Fremon's story about a college graduate, played by top-billed Alexis Bledel, moving back in with her folks and trying to decide between the hunk next door (Rodrigo Santoro) and good ol' reliable Adam (Zach Gilford of "Friday Night Lights"), her lovesick pal from way back.

The material may be formulaic, but the spirit of the piece is friendly. Bledel's character, Ryden Malby, is a hyper-organized sort who has her post-collegiate life mapped out in advance, the primary goal being a job at a prestigious L.A. publishing house. Life conspires against these plans, however. While friend Adam tries to reconcile his dream of a music career with the law school route, Ryden hunts for work, her father invests in a line of decorator belt buckles, and her little brother has a big soap-box derby coming up.

These are homey comic concerns, some funnier than others, but all are well-played by the ensemble. Keaton and Jane "Always Worth Seeing" Lynch slip into the roles of dad and mom; Carol Burnett, done up like a turbaned collage of many of her most familiar variety show characters, scores a few laughs as Grandma Maureen, even without the zingers she deserves.

Is "Post Grad" too low-key to snag an audience in this age of blatancy? Perhaps. But in the summer of '09, the halfway-successful romantic comedies have all been pitched to an age group I haven't belonged to in decades. "The Proposal" and "The Ugly Truth" only wish they had some of the charm of unpretentious diversions such as "Bandslam" or "Post Grad." Bledel, of "Gilmore Girls" and "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants," takes things nice and easy. She's not out to kill us with cuteness.

It's too bad the plot confines her character to such a starkly limited set of options (dream career or dreamboat). But as this economy has asserted for long enough now, thanks, you can't have everything.

 

"Post Grad" Movie Trailer

 

     RSS

 

Receive Movie Reviews
Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

 

Post Grad MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sexual situations and brief strong language).

Running time: 1:29.

Starring: Alexis Bledel (Ryden Malby); Zach Gilford (Adam Davies); Michael Keaton (Walter Malby); Jane Lynch (Carmella Malby); Carol Burnett (Grandma Maureen); Rodrigo Santoro (David Santiago); JK Simmons (Roy Davies); Craig Robinson (funeral director).

Directed by Vicky Jenson; written by Kelly Fremon; produced by Ivan Reitman, Joe Medjuck and Jeffrey Clifford. A Fox Searchlight release.

 

Recent Movie Reviews - Films in Theaters

 

Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds
Brad Pitt & Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds

A queasy historical do-over, Quentin Tarantino's new film has been described as a grindhouse version of "Valkyrie"; a rhapsody dedicated to the cinema's powers of persuasion; and a showcase for Austrian-born character actor Christoph Waltz, who waltzes off with the performance honors as a suavely vicious Nazi colonel.

 

Rodriguez, Gagnon, Howard

Shorts
Jon Cryer & William H. Macy in Shorts

This children's movie focuses on an 11-year-old (Jimmy Bennett) with multiple tormentors and a rainbow-colored rock that grants wishes. There are holes in the story that a 3-year-old could point out ...

 

Jim Sturgess

Fifty Dead Men Walking
Jim Sturgess & Ben Kingsley in Fifty Dead Men Walking

"Fifty Dead Men Walking" tells a highly charged version of one informant's life story, which is also the story of multiple near-deaths. This sharp, well-acted film is based on the autobiography of Martin McGartland (Jim Sturgess), a West Belfast Catholic who in the late 1980s insinuated himself into the good graces of the Irish Republican Army in order to funnel intelligence to the occupying British forces. Writer-director Kari Skogland keeps the players vivid and relatively honest, and never shies away from the brutalities.

 

X Games 3D: The Movie

X Games 3D: The Movie (2 Stars)
Shaun White & Travis Pastrana in X Games 3D: The Movie

As a repackaging of last year's Summer X Games using the latest in 3-D camera technology, Disney's limited-run extreme sports doc "X Games 3D: The Movie" is an uneven thrill-circus display that too often feels like TV writ large and loud rather than cinematic reimagining ...

 

Bandslam
Aly Michalka, Vanessa Hudgens & Gaelan Connell in Bandslam

"Bandslam" is a pretty good movie, and the odds of its being a pretty bad movie were pretty steep. A lonely new kid in town (Gaelan Connell) becomes manager of teen band fronted by cutest girl on planet (Aly Michalka). If band wins big Bandslam contest, it's a record deal and fame.

 

Ponyo
Noah Cyrus & Tina Fey in Ponyo

The title character in this animated feature is a goldfish (voiced by Noah Cyrus, Miley's sister) who longs to become human. Five minutes into this magical film you'll be making lists of the people you can expose to the special mixture of fantasy and folklore.

 

The Time Traveler's Wife
Rachel McAdams & Eric Bana in The Time Traveler's Wife

This film's best feature is Rachel McAdams in the title role of the serenely long-suffering mate of a man born with a dilly of a chromosomal irregularity. Involuntarily, usually at inconvenient times, Henry (Eric Bana) zwoops to an entirely different locale and chronological point in his lifetime

 

The Goods: Live-Hard. Sell Hard
Jeremy Piven & Ving Rhames in The Goods: Live-Hard. Sell Hard.

Sloppy, grimy but quick on its feet, "The Goods" stars Jeremy Piven as Don "The Goods" Ready, the swiftest shark in the used-car business. He and some other rogue salesfolk are hired by a used-car legend (James Brolin) to move the inventory, pronto, over a Fourth of July weekend.

 

Julie & Julia
Meryl Streep & Amy Adams in Julie & Julia

Writer-director Nora Ephron adapts and intertwines two books: Julia Child's "My Life in France" and Julie Powell's "Julie & Julia." The latter grew out of Powell's online experiment, a year spent cooking and blogging her way through the seminal Child volume "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." It may not make for great cinema, but you go to a movie like this for the sauces and stews, and for the considerable pleasure of seeing (and listening to) Meryl Streep's drolly exuberant performance as Child. Amy Adams is also very good as Powell