Tenure (2009)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I am an emeritus professor at a Big Ten University in Columbus, Ohio (for the non-US based readers: this is one of the best known universities in the US), so I have plenty of experience with academic life in general, and hiring/tenure processes in particular. It was very amusing to see that the movie's description of academic life was so wrong that not even the opposite would have been anywhere nearby the truth. It was so wrong that I am sure it was deliberate. Nevertheless, this was a very entertaining movie. I had a good time watching it.I strongly recommend it to my academic colleagues because it is fun to see how others imagine academic life.BTW, e.g., "The Big Bang Theory" is not better either in showing academic life; still it is a fabulously superb sitcom.P.S. I wonder if the reason that movies pretending to show the intricacies of academic life end up painting a false picture only because showing the actual reality would be simply too boring and disappointing for the "people on the street".

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.

In a fictitious small college in the United States, a mediocre professor of English literature (played by Luke Wilson) see his job threatened because tenure is soon up, and the university has decided to bring in to compete for his job a supposedly brilliant as well as beautiful young professor from Yale (the lovely Gretchen Mol). This is supposed to be an affectionate satire of the academic world in the US, but I found little affection in what I see. As for the supposed humor, I don't recall laughing once at this movie. Seeing these people with their ridiculous trappings, the vain and pompous administrators, it is clear these professors and administrators add very little value to the rest of the society, yet they live not badly and with a certain status. While the movie obviously exaggerates, from what I read is a not altogether incorrect depiction of life in the rarefied US academic world. Are academics smart people? It doesn't seem so from this movie. Here they look pretty pathetic. It's funny how the Gretchen Mol character is repeatedly described as super smart, when she seems to be the typical dumb blonde (she is the most likable character in the movie, though). The Luke Wilson character, though not entirely unlikable, is a man in his late thirties that is still single and unattached, without any real prospect of improving his life, if anything, it is clear that his life would go downhill from here. The character of the anthropologist friend is downright pathetic (and the big foot thing? what was about that?). The dean and the old lady playing the academic director were also repellent characters. Clearly most of these people could not get a job outside of academia. Seeing this movie, I understand why more and more people believe that tenure should be abolished.

"Tenure" is a comedy about college professors. It has its fair share of problems, mainly that it has a really weak (in some cases false) description of college life for professors. And its hard to call this a comedy.The jokes are very sophomoric, you may laugh a little bit, but these jokes are for the lowest common denominator. I found it a very odd mix, since generally movies about academic professors are supposed to be more intelligent. Do not mistake this movie as intelligent. David Koechner (who I am generally not a big fan of) is in the main comedic role, he crosses the line from professor to student, and his jokes cross the line from decent to unacceptable.That aside, the rest of the movie is a pretty good exploration of a smart, but insecure, 30-something guy. Luke Wilson is his usual, likable self, and I looked forward to the resolution for his character."Tenture" is not the smart, funny academic film that I was expecting (and that I think it was supposed to be), but I found a bit of myself in Luke Wilson's character and I was smiling at the end. If you ignore the promise of high comedy, this film can be enjoyed.