Film

The Graduate

Name: The Graduate
Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy
Released: 1967
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton

Mike Nichols' cool, sun-bleached satire follows Benjamin Braddock as he drifts numbly between an affair with an older family friend and an infatuation with her daughter. It's funny, unsettling, gorgeously shot, and its Simon & Garfunkel score practically invented a whole mood of generational disillusionment. Essential for anyone curious where American cinema's turn toward irony and ambivalence really began.

TMDb rating

7.6

If you liked this

Harold and Maude1971

Hal Ashby's cult black comedy pairs a death-obsessed young man with a wildly alive octogenarian, pushing The Graduate's taboo-romance discomfort even further while somehow ending up warmer and stranger.

But Its whimsy is broader and its tone odder, some find the central romance more twee than transgressive.

American Beauty1999

Suburban ennui curdles into full-blown midlife rebellion here, with Lester chasing youth the way Benjamin flees it, the same satirical eye on American comfort but with sharper teeth.

But Its late-90s self-satisfaction and voiceover moralizing have aged awkwardly, and the crush plot lands queasier now.

Rushmore1998

Wes Anderson's breakout gives you another oddball chasing an inappropriate crush with deadpan comic timing and a killer soundtrack, if Benjamin's awkwardness charmed you, Max Fischer will too.

But Anderson's fussy, symmetrical style is an acquired taste, and some find Max's schemes grating rather than endearing.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Sunset Boulevard1950

Same power dynamic as Mrs. Robinson and Benjamin, an older, disillusioned woman drawing in a younger drifting man, but shot seventeen years earlier as gothic tragedy rather than satire.

Billy Wilder's ferocious Hollywood noir got there first, a predatory older woman and a passive younger man, and shows you exactly where the shadows under The Graduate's comedy came from.

But It's a genuinely tragic noir with none of the sun-drenched comic detachment, expect doom, not deadpan.

Manhattan1979

Woody Allen trades California pools for jazz and skyline but keeps the same neurotic drift toward relationships you can't quite root for, gorgeous to look at, uncomfortable to sit with.

But The age-gap plot lands very differently now, and Allen's off-screen history colours the viewing for many.

Lost in Translation2003

A hushed, wandering film about two people out of step with their own lives finding an ambiguous connection, it shares The Graduate's ache of not knowing what comes next, minus the sharp jokes.

But Very little happens plot-wise, its power is atmosphere and mood, which some viewers find frustratingly slow.

Almost Famous2000

A gentler, warmer coming-of-age story set on tour with a 70s rock band, it has the same wide-eyed drift into adulthood but trades irony for real tenderness.

But Its nostalgia is sweeter and less cutting, so it won't scratch the same satirical itch.

Garden State2004no page yet

Zach Braff's numbed, directionless young man returning home echoes Benjamin's malaise, right down to an era-defining soundtrack meant to carry the feeling the script leaves unsaid.

But Its indie-quirk sincerity can feel try-hard now, and its soundtrack-forward style has been widely parodied since.

Carnal Knowledge1971no page yet

Mike Nichols' follow-up trades comedy for something colder and more clinical, tracking two men's decades of romantic failure with unflinching honesty about desire and cruelty.

But It's bleaker and more explicit about its ugliness, with none of The Graduate's charm to soften the blow.

Annie Hall1977

Woody Allen's landmark comedy shares the era's fourth-wall-breaking cool and its interest in a relationship doomed by mismatched wants, funnier and warmer than most films about heartbreak.

But Its whip-smart, talky style has been so imitated since that it can feel over-familiar now.

Boyhood2014

Same fascination with the disorienting slide from adolescence into adulthood, but built as a structural experiment, filmed for real over twelve years instead of compressed into one hot summer.

Richard Linklater's twelve-year shoot captures an American kid actually aging on screen, stretching The Graduate's one aimless summer into an entire slow-motion decade of drift.

But It's nearly three hours of low-key, plotless naturalism, the opposite of The Graduate's tight, pointed satire.

Risky Business1983no page yet

Same premise, a directionless young man's awakening under an older, more worldly woman, but reworked as gleeful teen sex comedy instead of downbeat generational satire.

Tom Cruise's star-making comedy is the trashier, funnier cousin, a suburban kid's sexual awakening at the hands of a knowing older woman, played for laughs and swagger instead of melancholy.

But It's shallow and played straight for fun where The Graduate is ambivalent and sad, don't expect the same ache.