The Graduate (1967)

The film perfectly encapsulates and portrays the feelings of self-doubt, alienation, disenchantment and unwanted pressures and expectations for a twenty-something just out of college.
Dustin Hoffman, in his first major film role, plays Benjamin Braddock: the epitome of the confused and isolated young adult male. He sits in his room and does nothing. He lies around in his parent's pool for hours on end.
Ben, who has just graduated from college, is home for the summer. Then, after an awkward sexual encounter with a friend of his parents named Mrs. Robinson, a one night stand turns into a summer romance. But betrayal soon follows as Benjamin falls for Mrs. Robinson's daughter, Elaine.
Mike Nichols did an outstanding job with portraying Dustin Hoffman as a confused graduate suffocating from the pressure of the real world after college.Nichols direction with this film is incredibly appropriate for depicting Dustin Hoffman's character correctly. There are many scenes where Braddock is shown from afar coming toward the camera, whether it is walking to the hotel room or running to the church. He is the focus of the movie, but the camera, like all of the other people in his life, could care less about him.One of the most powerful images for me was Braddock shown between Mrs. Robinson's legs telling her she's trying to seduce him. Nichols also highlights the mindlessness of the affair with the talking scene. Ben wants to have a conversation with Mrs. Robinson, but she has no interest in him finding out about her shattered life.
"The Graduate" is a comedy at its heart. It contains one of the funniest and most exciting climaxes in cinema. And the final image is a knockout. It shows Benjamin and Elaine sitting at the end of a bus filled with elders, looking ahead blankly, at the road and at their future. Then the bus drives off in the distance. They do not know where their future is headed, or where the bus is even going.
The film closes with the same song it opened with: "The Sounds of Silence".
4/5 a true ClassiC