Harvard Man (2001)

A basketball player strikes a deal with the mob to fix a basketball game.

Director:

James Toback

Writer:

James Toback

Stars:

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Adrian Grenier, Joey Lauren Adams

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Adrian Grenier	...	Alan Jensen
Sarah Michelle Gellar	...	Cindy Bandolini
Joey Lauren Adams	...	Chesney Cort
Eric Stoltz	...	Teddy Carter
Rebecca Gayheart	...	Kelly Morgan
Gianni Russo	...	Andrew Bandolini
Ray Allen	...	Marcus Blake
Mike Vetere	...	Russell (as Michael Aparo)
Scottie Epstein	...	Mario
John Neville	...	Dr. Reese
Polly Shannon	...	Juliet
Phillip Jarrett	...	Coach Preston
Adam Bloch	...	Kenner
Lauren Collis	...	Connie
Landy Cannon	...	Butch

Storyline

College has always been a time for experimentation, sexual, cultural and otherwise. "Harvard Man" plays out against a background of love, sex, basketball, crime and experimentation. Action and philosophy in young people's quest to discover their true identity.

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Plot Keywords:

two word title | male objectification | nudity | male rear nudity | male frontal nudity | 

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Taglines:

Passion, Seduction, Deception

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for drug use, language and some strong sexuality

Did You Know?

Trivia

Leonardo DiCaprio was initially set to star.

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Goofs

The outdoor scenes would indicate mid summer when basketball season is in the middle of winter.

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Quotes

Cindy: Well, pardon me for breathing, what are you his fucking savior?

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Alternate Versions

On The DVD there is an Alternate Opening Scene. The only major difference being that the sex scene between Cindy & Alan is more graphic (you see more naked shots of Alan, which were not in the original version)

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Connections

Referenced in The Cinema Snob: Heaven's Gate: Part 1 (2015)

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Soundtracks

I Can't Let You Go
Written by Jim Galloway
Performed by Love Candy
Courtesy of Attack Records

User Reviews

Dostoevskian 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU

The new form James Toback minted in his still-sharp-looking 2000 BLACK AND WHITE--a sort-of-Godardian essay movie heavy on cultural politics, flamboyant improvisation, and Toback's sexual obsessions--got kicked to the curb when JT finally made his long-in-the-works autobiographical bildungsroman, which originated with Warren Beatty, and later languished in the fields of Leonardo DiCaprio. Supposedly cast by Mary Vernieu, the movie is really cast by Toback's weiner: what else explains the surrealism of Joey Lauren Adams as a Harvard philosophy professor (at 28!) lecturing undergraduates on Wittgenstein's distrust in the expressivity of language? Or, for that matter, Rebecca Gayheart as a hard-as-nails (but, of course, secretly bisexual) FBI agent?

In BLACK AND WHITE, Toback's zany stunt casting (Brooke Shields as Nick Broomfield! Brett Ratner as a sleazy hack filmmaker!) worked, because the director let 'em roll, baby, roll. Here, Toback seems to have patterned his dialogue scenes after HIS GIRL FRIDAY--and the editing gooses the rhythms even further, so every scene plays like a MAD TV parody of crystal-meth freaks having a 78-rpm conversation.

Adrian Grenier plays the hero, Alan, a Harvard point guard, philosophy freak, and cocksman extraordinaire, who greets mob goons and Martin Heidegger alike with the same cool, adult, always-unexpectedly-detached repose. He shocks everyone in every situation with his infinitely wise underreaction to everything. Grenier suggests a moist pretty-boy naif in a Truffaut or Assayas movie; only late in the day, when he overdoses on LSD, does he seem to be acting at all. (That's not meant in a good way.) He divides his bed time between a mobster's daughter (Sarah Michelle Gellar, going for indie street cred just in case SCOOBY DOO didn't turn out) and the aforementioned girl-philosopher-queen (played by Adams as a kind of baby-voiced, bulbous-nosed Diane Sawyer). When Alan has to shave points in a Harvard-Dartmouth game to help his folks in Kansas rebuild their house after a tornado (why this movie allusion?), he gets in trouble with the mob and the Feds--and, this being a Toback movie, it's only a four-way with Eric Stoltz and three hot tamales that can get Alan out of hot water.

Like Toback's other dud, THE PICK-UP ARTIST, HARVARD MAN seems to have been thought-over to death. Toback massaged this material for many years; the LSD material and even the mob stuff dates the movie, marks it as Toback's bittersweet homage to his early-sixties youth. Set in the present no doubt for economic reasons, the picture makes no sense; but worse, Toback's heart isn't in it. This miserable cast doesn't give him the charge of the astonishing mix of great actors, "interesting" actors and stunning nonactors that made up BLACK AND WHITE. As another Toback gem, the non-fiction THE BIG BANG, proves, he needs a party full of bright minds to get things sparking. Without cast, Toback's Dostoevskian torments quickly turn into congealed Cinemax sleaze--and that will be the elephant graveyard where this blooper will no doubt lie.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 August 2001 (France)

Also Known As:

Harvard Man

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$5,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$8,425, 19 May 2002

Gross USA:

$56,653

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$56,653

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alliance Cinema, Bigel / Mailer Films, Lions Gate Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1