Tenure

This is a melo-dramatic comedy, 2009 flick starring Luke Wilson as our main protagonist and also featuring Gretchen Mol, David Koechner, Sasha Alexander and Bob Gunton. It is written and directed by Mike Million. Rated R if you're interested by ratings or if you want to supervise what your kids are listening. I've heard the F word a few times and other sexual references words, so that is where you'll get your R rating. No images to support the words. It's all speaking "R".

This is not the flagship of Luke Wilson's filmography. It is an independent movie produced by Blowtorch Entertainment, that you may not heard of, unless you're into the underground movie scene. Like I said, it's not a blockbuster movie, not action-packed and it wasn't a movie that you saw any publicity about it, at least not that I know of. But, somehow, when I looked at cover and read the synopsis, I was, I could say a little bit intrigued. So I sat on the couch and I was ready to be… Well I wasn't ready for anything. I didn't come with lots of expectations for this movie. I thought to myself, well let's just watch this and see what comes out of it. So anyway, there you go! Charlie Thurber is in his mid-thirty and an English teacher at Grey's College. Charlie's struggling to get his tenureship, which to us is the thing that he'd like to get so bad. To obtain this, he's get to be elect by his fellow teacher partners and his essays need to be publish in a journal or anything that releases a publication. This is the main plot of the film.

Here comes Charlie's best friend, Dr. Jay Hadley(David Koechner), who's an anthropologist and die-hard believer of the existence of the Big Foot. Jay is a 42 years old that I've never seem to grow up. The best example I could tell for this is that Jay tried to get his tenureship and got denied so to replicate at one person who didn't get him his vote he "T-P'ed" that particular man's tree. You see the picture.

Charlie's got to put on his A-game when Elaine Grasso(Gretchen Mol), a new teacher from Yale adds herself up in the mix. On top of this, he has to deal with his father(Bob Gunton), who's in a nursing home but doesn't feel like being in it.

The movie's main theme is about trying to get what you want and the ways you choose to get it. It's an easy-listening movie, it does not revolutionize the movie "genre", but in my opinion this kind of film doesn't need to change that much anyway.

On a scale of 10, I'd give Tenure a 6/10 rating. It made me laugh at times, not out loud laughs but okay laughs. If you like Luke Wilson and/or Gretchen Mol, then I suggest you this flick.

Luke Wilson does a very good job here. He makes us like him and we want him to succeed in all areas of his life. That seems to be the main point of the movie and the main reason to enjoy it.

I know David Koechner from several roles, but mainly as the likable loser on "Superior Donuts". Here, he is a loser, but I wouldn't say likable. I suppose we want him to succeed but almost know for certain he never will.

Gretchen Mol is adorable and intelligent, and while her character's failure would be good for Charlie, she just makes Elaine too nice and pleasant for us to really want that. Seeing her and Wilson together is one of the best things about the movie.

Sasha Alexander is nothing but unpleasant. That's it. Margaret has no redeeming qualities except she's a looker. That's how Jay described Elaine, but I didn't see it myself.

Bob Gunton does a good job (though there are no challenges connected with his character's apparent problems) and I found myself wanting the film to focus more on him and the relationship between William and Charlie. I didn't care if the movie wasn't always funny.

William Bogert as the dean is sort of the absent-minded professor and makes us sort of like him, though not always.

The actors playing three of the students also made us like them. Even Ben, sort of the class clown, who doesn't have nearly enough lines.

Some of the music is classical and nice to listen to. But I particularly liked the "a capella" sound that was so much a part of the background music of the TV series "Glee" and a big part of the "Pitch Perfect" movies. This style was played at the movie's start.

Is this family friendly? In version I saw part of the sign for the presentation of a product is blurry, and every time the product name is mentioned it is bleeped. Let's just say it helps men who are having trouble with women. Later, this product is the subject of a hilarious scene in ... I'd better let you find out. Also, I have reason to suspect the F-word was used a lot. Cleaned up for TV, it's not really too bad.

I enjoyed this, though I have seen better.

Charlie Thurber (Luke Wilson) is an English professor at a small, New England college. Although his students love and learn from him, his possible tenure is in doubt. This is because of the "publish or perish" unwritten law that is prevalent in American academia. So far, Charlie is having trouble getting his essays into an admired journal. To complicate things, his father is in an extended care facility nearby, due to early dementia, but, Charlie is not visiting him often enough. This has angered his sister and upset his dad, who was also a prof and likes to converse with his son. A colleague, Jay (David Koechner), an unorthodox science instructor in search of a bigfoot-type local monster, is also up for tenure. Now, the dean lures a Yale-educated English academic, Elaine Grasso (Gretchen Mol) to the department, further complicating Charlie's quest for tenure. Jay suggests that the two males mildly "sabotage" Elaine's adjustment to the school, by arranging to make her look bad in front of others, especially the dean. This involves everything from implicating her in a "cola" theft in the staff room to questioning her school loyalty at the college basketball game, where Elaine inadvertently sat on the opposing team's side. But, wait, does Charlie really want to drive Elaine away, since she's so smart and pretty and he's single? For those who love comedy-romance, here is another sweet view. Wilson's dry, understated humor is always welcome while Mol is a lovely romantic interest. The rest of the cast, including Koechner, are wonderfully supportive. The beautiful east coast college campus will surely bring sighs of admiration and the costumes, script, photography, and steady direction are quite fine as well. Get Tenure, therefore, all you usual fan suspects.

Smart little film about a college teacher (Wilson) facing tenure review. He's a great teacher but has barely been published and is not enough of a politician. Along comes a new assistant professor (Mol) from Yale of all places, and now he's facing competition. His best buddy, a slightly deranged anthropology teacher (Koechner), convinces him to sabotage the new arrival at every turn. Problem is, the new arrival is unsure of herself and the two "competitors" become friends. Wilson is perfect in his role, and Koechner is wonderfully daffy as a Sasquatch worshiper. Mol is pretty, but truthfully isn't given that much to do. There's a nice ongoing bit about Wilson's character and his aging dad (Gunton), who unhappily resides in a nursing home. Filmed on the campus of Bryn Mawr. Very relaxed, nothing artificial, nothing forced, to the very end.

This film was a delight to watch, but did get slow at parts. At parts you did feel a little bored, but something would come up to get your attention back for a bit. It had light humor, but it was a nice chuckle and relaxing. The cast in the film was pretty good. Luke Wilson was decent, but not his best role. Now they needed an actor to play a off the wall weird teacher who is obsessed with bigfoot. So they picked David Koechner, who at first I thought wouldn't fit, but he proved me wrong. Gretchen Mol played the main female role and she did a good job. The film is all about a teacher trying to get tenure. That in itself sounds like a boring piece of work, but luckily they did put some humor in the film. That is basically what David Koechner was for. Some scenes were a bit out of the ordinary, but it really fit with the film. This independent film didn't rely on anything crazy like special effects. Just nice dialog and a decent cast. This would be one of those nice Sunday afternoon movies to watch.