AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Tacticalin An absolute waste of money

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

SnoopyStyle Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford) is oddly sophisticated at 15. He idolizes Voltaire and is particular about women's hands. He is secretly in love with his stepmother Eve (Sigourney Weaver). He is back at home in NYC from Chauncey Academy for the Thanksgiving weekend. His father (John Ritter) is concerned. Eve's best friend Diane (Bebe Neuwirth) starts a sexual fling with him and tells all her girlfriends.The kid is self-important and not very compelling. Also he doesn't really look 15 at all which takes away some of the tension. The movie is aiming to be a quirky indie except it's not funny. It's a little particular in its tone but not very interesting. The story is a teen in love with his 40 something stepmother. That could be interesting. This is a twenty something guy in love with Sigourney Weaver. Who isn't?

Michelle Audrey "One should always aim at being interesting rather than exact" – Voltaire. Never has a truer word been spoken and this film would have saved itself by paying heed. The basic plot concerns an overly intelligent and smugly sophisticated 15 year old Oscar Grubman (Aaron Stanford) and an infatuation with his much older stepmother, Eve (Sigourney Weaver). No prizes for guessing which 1967 Mike Nichols film this is styled on.One drunken night, Oscar bumps into Eve's best friend, Diane (Bebe Neuwirth), a similarly older lady. Diane seizes her opportunity and seduces Oscar like the classic cougar that she is through the guise of wearing a scarf and perfume that remind Oscar of his stepmother. Now, it should be duly noted that if you're a 15 year old guy with a fetish for the older woman, then said older woman could not take any better form than that of Diane when played by Ms Neuwirth. However, the overall plot is not a challenge and distinctly lacks any sense that it might actually be going somewhere until the last ten minutes. Importantly, the last ten minutes turn out to be just as disappointing as the rest of this film.The only pillars of strength for 'Tadpole' are the performances turned in by Bebe Neuwirth and John Ritter. Their time on screen manages to break the monotony of what is otherwise a drab and disengaged motion picture. It says a considerable amount about a film when an actress of Sigourney Weaver's caliber fails to resonate or lift the tone, as even she appears bored at times.The characters seem wholly underdeveloped and the interesting ones appear to drop off the face of the earth almost as quickly as they were shoved onto it. Eve, as Oscar's stepmother could have been an interesting version of the love interest but her limited time on screen leaves a vague and insipid impression of the character. Oscar is an acceptable protagonist, but given that the film deals with a rich topic for storytelling, he is also somewhat disappointing for a male lead with what could have been an excellent show and tell of the Oedipus Complex. The fact that Aaron Stanford is evidently older than his character's 15 years has not gone amiss with either the scriptwriter or the director as the supporting cast constantly reminds the viewer that he is indeed older than he seems, in more ways than one.As John Ritter puts it during the dinner sequence, incidentally the best scene in the film, "it's all very The Graduate." Indeed it is, minus the finesse. Crammed with embarrassingly clichéd musical dream sequences, that would quite frankly make Rodgers and Hammerstein seem like a welcome addition to any film collection, we have before us a disastrous attempt to make a Graduate-esque teenage crush appear facetious. Winnick has failed to provide an attention grabbing look at Oscar's dilemma, instead eliciting the comical whimsy of the protagonist's daydreams to the point of exaggerated (and plain bad) slapstick. Overall, 'Tadpole' suggests that it could have, should have and would have been better had Winnick been prepared to put some oomph into the production. It's a shame to see actors of Weaver's, Ritter's and Neuwirth's ability being wasted on shoddy production values and lazy attention to pulldown's and video field capacity. The result is a half-baked comedy that is watchable (tenacity spanning) but at times lacking in passion. Very disappointing ultimately.

intelearts ONe of the better slices of irony seen in a while that bears more than a passing resemblance to Woody Allen (If it were a girl gunning for her stepfather then you really would say it was obvious).Oscar is 15, trying to be cool and an intellectual, a fogey, and a lot of the humor comes from his pseudo-deep insights on life and Voltaire. Voltaire is no coincidence: Candide is Oscar in parts. Oscar wants the ideal - just in this case the ideal is Eva - his stepmother.A lot of this works because of the characterization and chemistry - Oscar fins himself caught in others' webs, but is somehow a good mix of mature and innocent that works well.All in all a nice effort, it never really bites and thus given the material and nature of the film fails to really skewer the comedy and ends up almost a nostalgic look at how 15 year old boys wish love could have been.Funny in parts and wistful this is a nice film about adult relationships.

Elliott Noble Tadpole is a near-perfect examination of the male teenage crush. That young Oscar would choose Sigourney Weaver's charming but inaccessible stepmother over her best friend Bebe Neuwirth's irresistible mixture of free-spirited maturity and pure naughtiness nails his condition beautifully. Unconditional sex whenever he wants and he turns it down! The boy has it bad.The adorable Neuwirth steals the show from a very impressive cast (including the late John Ritter and Robert 'AJ Soprano' Iler). But nothing should be taken away from Stanford who shines in the lead role; by turns irritating and pretentious, vulnerable and confused, and angry and resentful – just like any other smart 15-year-old.Hollywood buffoonery of the American Pie variety will always find a bigger audience but anyone who's been one will know that this is what teenagers are really like. This is a refreshing indie that neither preaches nor outstays its welcome.