This coming-of-age piece tries to be sophisticated and French. Indeed, 15 year-old Oscar reads Voltaire and has a thing for, what the French call, women 'of a certain age'.
In New York, where this Woody-Allen-meets-Whit-Stillman derivative unfolds, middle-aged seductresses are called 'felons'. Unlike men, women know they look pathetic if they screw boys who could be their sons. True, Oscar is unnaturally beyond his years (Stanford is a fresh-faced 23), but his maturity is, like too much else here, unconvincing.
Awkward dialogues, Manhattan walkabouts and film theory exercises fill the space around the centrepiece, a dinner party at which embarrassing revelations have some amusing charm.
Shot in 14 days on digital video for $150,000, Tadpole won the Director's Award and a pick-up from Miramax at Sundance, which shows it is still possible for indie go-getters to make their own breaks, even if the work is half-baked.