Scott LeBrun 15 year old Oscar Grubman (played by 25 year old Aaron Stanford) definitely has the soul of someone much older - but not the wisdom. He has no romantic time for girls his own age - he actually prefers women, for their maturity and experience. In fact, he has a crush on his worldly stepmother Eve (Sigourney Weaver), whom he idealizes. In an amusing farcical turn of events, he sleeps with Eves' friend Diane (Bebe Neuwirth, who's never looked sexier).This is a reasonably funny, lightly entertaining comedy about a young man with lots of book smarts and an endearing amount of naivety which is precisely what some people find intriguing about him. Stanford is just right in the lead role, even if he's clearly older than what he's playing. Neuwirth is irresistible as the saucy older woman (just imagine the trouble the character would be in in real life, though!). John Ritter is good as always playing Oscars' somewhat pretentious dad. And Weaver is appealing as the object of our young hero's misguided affection.One thing that's rather refreshing about "Tadpole" is that it only runs 79 minutes. It's nice to see a modern movie that doesn't meander and wraps up its story in such a trim fashion.Definitely worth seeing for admirers of the cast.Seven out of 10.

deflinus I've heard about the movie when it came out a couple of years ago. I thought the plot was intriguing because i figured there would be a lot of interesting developments and i just wanted to see how the film would come out to be. well, sadly - i didn't see the film in theaters but i did catch it on IFC for the first time. and i was impressed.i thought the story didn't really have much depth to it but the movie was really funny in some parts. i enjoyed watching John Ritter. for a movie, the story felt really thin - but it made up for it in the end i believe. And, it did interest me to keep watching it rather than just stop. overall i thought it was really funny and there were some interesting parts of the movie that i thought could of been executed better. i heard about the complaints about the quality of the film and how it was filmed in digital and that didn't phase me at all. i think it's stupid to think less of a film just because the shots in it weren't perfect. i loved the ending and it really fulfilled the time i spent watching it. like the summary, it's a very well done enjoyable simple film. i'd watch it again, definitely.

ldavis-2 Just caught this on IFC. Poster mwyarbrough thinks those who have a problem with "Tadpole" don't get it: "Because he is very intelligent, Oscar makes the classic adolescent mistake of overestimating his own maturity..." The problem with this assessment is that no adult in the real world, no matter how sophisticated (and the adults here twist themselves into pretzels to "prove" how "sophisticated" they are) would put up with this obnoxious little sh*t for 5 minutes! The only thing that rang true in this Murmur of the Heart wanna-be is Obnoxious Little Sh*t's paranoia about Step-Mama's Gal Pal. But how he tries to stop her is mean, and when she all-too happily drops the bomb, Dad (who's such a wuss, he opens his Thanksgiving toast with an apology to Native Americans) won't confront them, and Step-Mama reacts with some half-hearted "I'm shocked" retorts. As others have noted, a crime was committed, but only in the movies can a 15 year old boy be served at a bar without getting carded, bed an older woman, have other older women swoon over him, and French kiss Step-Mama, who tells him: "You're old enough to make your own decisions!" Oy! No wonder Sundance ate it up, critics compared it to Woody Allen, and Miramax picked it up for a whopping $6 million! That whirring sound you hear is Voltaire spinning in his grave!

Elliott Noble Tadpole is a near-perfect examination of the male teenage crush. That young Oscar would choose Sigourney Weaver's charming but inaccessible stepmother over her best friend Bebe Neuwirth's irresistible mixture of free-spirited maturity and pure naughtiness nails his condition beautifully. Unconditional sex whenever he wants and he turns it down! The boy has it bad.The adorable Neuwirth steals the show from a very impressive cast (including the late John Ritter and Robert 'AJ Soprano' Iler). But nothing should be taken away from Stanford who shines in the lead role; by turns irritating and pretentious, vulnerable and confused, and angry and resentful – just like any other smart 15-year-old.Hollywood buffoonery of the American Pie variety will always find a bigger audience but anyone who's been one will know that this is what teenagers are really like. This is a refreshing indie that neither preaches nor outstays its welcome.