Thomas McCallum’s review published on Letterboxd:
Performances : 8.1/10
Story : 7.6/10
Production : 7/10
Overall : 7.57/10
The first time I watched The Graduate I honestly found it quite boring and ultimately gave it a 6/10. That was over a year ago and this time thorough I found that I appreciated it a lot more. It's an 8/10 now, though just barely.
Dustin Hoffman rides the line between hilarious and pathetic so well that you'd think the role of Ben Braddock was written especially for him. Paired with Anne Bancroft and Katherine Ross and surrounded by the likes of Murray Hamilton and William Daniels it's a small miracle nobody won an acting award at the Oscars that year. My big takeaway was that nobody came off like they were hamming it up in any of the really awkward sexual scenes. It seems like that's something that could have easily happened and the fact that it never goes in that direction makes these already amazing performances just that much more impressive.
I guess my big problem with the film, and the reason I was so reluctant to give it such drastically higher rating this time around is the general unevenness of the film in both the writing and production. Story wise it touches on both hilarious and depressing themes (much like Hoffman's character) but it never seriously dives feet first to either side. It seems like whenever it comes close to doing so it kind of steers towards the other direction to be safe. Similarly the entire mood of the film, the atmosphere and setting, the camera work and creative shots all come off nearly perfectly but the Simon and Garfunkel score almost ruined all of that. If a particular piece of music just didn't work then that was a best-case scenario because most of the time it left me smirking and scratching my head - something I'm sure Mike Nichols wasn't intending to cause people to do.
For all it's faults though, The Graduate does do one thing perfectly. It's not a safe move, it doesn't ride the line between any two things and it certainly isn't expected. The uncertain looks that Hoffman and Ross exchange on the bus in the closing moments will forever be one of my favorite cinematic moments. Was it all worth it? What comes next? I just find that whole sequence perfectly fitting.
Just for the record, I don't want to know "what comes next" or "was it all worth it". So don't make a sequel, Hollywood.