Post Grad

My Post Grad review appears in WE this week.

POST GRAD

Starring Alexis Bledel, Michael Keaton, Carol Burnett

Directed by Vicky Jenson

2 stars (out of 5)

Ryden Malby, a perky post-feminism victim with a gender-neutral name, has got her whole life mapped out — up to and including the cushy job she’ll land once her diploma’s in hand. A young woman with an agenda? Can’t have that, and neither can Post Grad, a messy coming-of-age “comedy” that’s as awkward, unfunny, and borderline-degrading as the morning after a frat party.

Gilmore Girls alumna Alexis Bledel is Ryden, possibly the most naïve Type-A personality ever committed to celluloid. Freshly graduated, she signs the lease on an apartment she can’t afford in anticipation of landing her dream job at a top Los Angeles publishing house . Surprise, surprise! Ryden doesn’t get the job, and she’s forced to move back home with her wacky family, including dad (Michael Keaton, mugging like Tim Allen circa Home Improvement) and grandma (Carol Burnett, mining Betty White’s dirty-old-lady territory, but with scary plastic surgery that lends her the air of Sunset Boulevard’s Norma Desmond).

Ryden can’t land a job, so she fills her days exploring a potential romance with the hot, older Brazilian neighbour, and, in the film’s most egregious and infuriating element, driving away Adam (Zach Gilford), the best friend who’s always been in love with her.

Writer Kelly Fremon believes girls just need to be worn down: Even if she’s rejected you repeatedly for four years, fella, just keep up the tender foot rubs in supermarkets and the writing of songs. If that doesn’t work, throw a fit and move to the other side of the country. She’ll realize her life-long pursuit of a dream job was “weird” (in Ryden’s father’s words). She’ll see the error of her ways and, suddenly, know what she wants to do with her life: She’s got a plane to catch.