The Graduate

This is one of those films where the artifice of the form dissolves, which very well might be the ultimate goal of filmmaking, but even more impressively is massively artificial in this achievement. A surreal present reflection on the affect of elders insistence on the divinity inside youth. Something that once entangled within, desimates all authenticity of lived presence and youth itself. Something that urges a young person to act and live not just besides chaos but within it. This makes for good films, and as the graduate argues "bad" lives; however that can exist, bad, hollow - as built on immediate instinct - something bound to decay. The Graduate lives by the wisdom that everything will decay. It's a tool used by Mrs Robinson over Ben. It's a tool used by the film during production, as it gels extensive planning with sporadic chaos. Loose storytelling that at points gets lost in its own dance, only to remember what it came here to do. An edit that swims and floats through itself. Further knowledge of decay is displayed in the presence of the camera on shoot, and the pastness of the delivered final cut. In that I am now 21, in the year 2026, and circling back on the film's influence, on the film's aged seduction. Something that slowly begins to decay with time, passing down influence into future projects, projects more youthful. Especially relevant in the evolution of Hollywood, wherein The Graduate was made during a golden era that is now nonexistent. It's not "as if" The Graduate knew this; it did know this; it was acutely aware of decay. Nevertheless The Graduate is still breathing, and while yes decaying, existing with the knowledge that so is everything. A beautiful exploration of the fact that decisions are an unravelling, permanent destiny. A fact absurd and, in turn, naturally, effortlessly, existentially hilarious and paradoxically timeless.