F-0279

Title:

Harvard Man

Category:

S

Produced:

2001

Country:

USA

Released:

Film: May 2001 (France, Cannes Film Festival); Apr 2002 (USA)
DVD: Oct 2002; Aug 2005
VHS: Oct 2002

Director:

James Toback

Writer:

James Toback

Actors:

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); Michael Aparo (Russell); Scottie Epstein (Mario); John Neville (Dr. Reese); Polly Shannon (Juliet); Phillip Jarrett (Coach Preston); Adam Bloch (Kenner); Lauren Collis (Connie); Landy Cannon (Butch)

Description:

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

College has always been a time for experimentation, sexual, cultural and otherwise. Toback's "Black and White" gave us the freshest recent perspective on hip college life and how kids deal with identity in today's rapid paced, morally ambiguous, sexually charged, multi-cultural society. "Harvard Man" is also played out against a background of love, sex, basketball, crime and experimentation. It is an ambitious work of action, philosophy and cinematic content that explores what today's young people go through on their quest to discover their true identity. (Anonymous)

Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a Holy Cross cheerleader named Cindy who is dating the point guard for the Harvard basketball team. Her father is a mob boss, and she gets her boyfriend Alan (played by Adrian Grenier) mixed up in sports betting. Joey Lauren Adams plays Alan's philosophy professor with whom Alan's got something going on the side. Eric Stoltz is an undercover FBI agent infiltrating Cindy's father's mafia operations. Rebecca Gayheart plays Stoltz' co-FBI agent/girlfriend, and Ray Allen plays Grenier's Harvard teammate. (COMMENT:Buffy)

This innovative drama from writer and director James Toback (BUGSY, BLACK AND WHITE) follows the travails of Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier), a Harvard student determined to live life to the fullest and find the ultimate truth. He gets high regularly, and is sleeping with Holy Cross cheerleader Cindy Bandolini (Sarah Michelle Gellar), who also happens to be a mobster's daughter. Simultaneously, Alan is carrying on an illicit affair with his philosophy professor, Chesney Cort (Joey Lauren Adams), a woman with a vast sexual appetite. When his parents lose their Kansas home in a tornado, Alan is desperate to help them financially. He turns to Cindy's father for a loan and is soon entrenched in a high-stakes gambling scheme. But all is not as it seems and Alan soon finds himself in over his head with many aspects of his life: his drug use, the women in his life, and even the FBI. Grenier is endearing as the truth-seeking Alan, and as a tough-talking Mafia princess, Gellar steps far away from her television persona as Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Eric Stoltz and Rebecca Gayheart lend their talents in supporting roles that add to the film’s twisting storyline. (Amazon.com)

Language:

English

TT:

99 min (Film, DVD, VHS) / 139 min (DVD)

J.S. Bach's Music:

WTC 1: Prelude & Fugue No. 13 in F sharp major, BWV 858, adapted and arranged by Ryan Shore
Lee Musiker (Piano)

Presto (Mvt. 3) from Italian Concerto in F major, BWV 971, adapted and arranged by Ryan Shore
Lee Musiker (Piano)

Format:

Film: Color, Dolby Digital
DVD: See below.
VHS: See below.

Company:

Film: Bigel / Mailer Films; The Kushner-Locke Company; Lions Gate Films; Worldwide Media
DVD: Lions Gate; First Look Pictures
VHS: Lions Gate

Comments:

Watch selections:

Buy movie at:

DVD: Amazon.com [Color, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC, Region 1] | Amazon.com [Color, NTSC, Region 1] | Amazon.com [Color, Full Screen, Widescreen, All Regions]
VHS: Amazon.com [Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC] | Amazon.com [Color, Subtitled, NTSC, Spanish Subtitles] | Amazon.com [NTSC]

DVD> VHS>

Source/Links: IMDB
Contributor: Aryeh Oron (November 2007)