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80
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Rolling Stone Peter Travers
In a summer of clones, Harvard Man is something rare and riveting: a wild ride that relies on more than special effects.
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75
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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
How can one man juggle two women, possible expulsion, Mafia baseball bats and the meaning of life, while on acid? This is the kind of question only a Toback film thinks to ask, let alone answer.
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75
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San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Adams sparkles with quick-mindedness and verbal agility. This is a worthy and underused talent.
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75
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Chicago Tribune Loren King
Toback's films deliver a lot of bang for the buck. He's one of the few serious and original directors who can mix group sex and talk of existentialism; a fast-paced basketball sequence cut with scenes of Mafia members plotting a hit; and an in-class philosophy lecture stylishly edited with Alan's memories of a contradictory in-bed discussion.
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75
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Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The first half of this freewheeling comedy-drama finds Toback at his imaginative best. The second half sinks into silliness.
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70
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The New York Times Dana Stevens
Mr. Toback uses his improbable, conventional story as the trelliswork for a series of wild and florid riffs about sex, ethics and the delirium of renegade moviemaking.
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50
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Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
A fast and clever con-gone-wrong comedy that reflects the writer-director's characteristic blend of the intellectual and the criminal. But it lacks anyone to care about--even the repellent characters are less than fascinating--and the result is a crisply made movie that is no more than mildly amusing.
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50
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New York Daily News Jack Mathews
Sillier than it is clever, and Toback's self-indulgence is tiresome. He's a genuine auteur, all right, but his life and the funky tastes that inspire him are just not as interesting as he thinks they are.
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42
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Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
A characteristically engorged and sloppy coming-of-age movie from the filmmaker (''Harvard '66'') who, in his body of work, indulges his fantasies as fetishistically as other men finger their cigars.
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30
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Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
There's no transcending a prosaic plot and several flat performances.
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