POST GRAD
Rated: PG-13
Starring: Alexis Bledel, Zach Gilford, Michael Keaton, Carol Burnett, Janet Lynch
Duration: 89 minutes

The SUMMARY:
"Post Grad" is a movie clearly directed at the female population.  The previews highlight a funny, intelligent, somewhat insecure college graduate who stumbles through life trying to make a smooth transition from university life to the post-college working world.  

SPOILER ALERT:
**PLEASE BE WARNED: WE MIGHT ACCIDENTALLY MENTION THE ENDING OF THE STORY.** We will try and remember to alert you when a major plot twist is about to be revealed.

The VERDICT:
After much discussion, we’ve decided the underlying message in the movie is a positive one. The main character, Ryden, pursues one thing (her education and then her career) to the neglect of all the other important things in her life.  Ryden figures out pursuing a career is not a bad thing, but a great life comes out of surrounding yourself with people you love and who you love back. We should all be so lucky to have it figured out like she does at 22.

BUT there are plenty of situations that show up in the movie that we don’t necessarily think are positive influences for teenage girls. There are a couple of inappropriate make-out scenes between the main character and her much-older, minor love interest. The language in the movie can be crude at times.  (It’s just weird to see Alexis Bledel using words better suited for R-rated movies.  She looks so sweet!)

And **HERE COMES THE MOVIE-ENDING SPOILER WE WARNED YOU ABOUT** she ends up moving in with her best-friend-turned-into-boyfriend at the end of the movie.  Not really something we want to promote with our girls!

So all that to say, we liked the overall message, but as is the case with most movies these days, we cringed at the visual make-out scenes, crude jokes, harsh humor, and colorful curse words throughout the movie.  And we think this movie is better-suited for a college crowd instead of middle school and high school girls.  We give it 2.5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed by Ree Reinhardt & Amber Hargrove:
Ree is one of the SAGE Ministry Associates & Amber is the Associate Student Minister at First Baptist Church, McKinney, Texas.  (And they love movies...and popcorn...and Coke Zero.)