“Yes, I’m a bum. But I’m a Harvard bum.”

Justin’s rating: As a coincidence, I graduated my masters with honors as well

Justin’s review: It’s really not that often that I re-review a film. After all, there are thousands of untouched prospects, so why go back to one I’ve done before? I suppose that in this case, it’s that I was unsatisfied with my attempts in the original to convey what this movie means to me.

You probably know from reading this site that PCU is my favorite college film, was a huge influence in Mutant Reviewers, and seemingly encapsulated a lot of my actual college experience. But if we sat down in front of a crackling fire late at night, talking as two close friends do, I might let slip that With Honors could be the more important college film for me.

Rewatching this movie was an absolute gut-punch. It was like a secret time capsule waiting to be opened and flood me with all sorts of specific memories of the ’90s, college life, my crush on Moira Kelly (shut up, we all had one), my deep fondness for Brendan Fraser, and my grudging admiration for Joe Pesci. I watch this, and I am immediately and briefly teleported back to 1994 and my first year of college, where I saw With Honors with my friends in our school auditorium. The movie bonded itself to my life and vice-versa.

Personal connections aside, With Honors is a seriously underrated slice of ’90s coming-of-age tale that grapples with themes of persistence, missed opportunities, and what is truly important in life. It’s got a few laughs and a few tear-jerker moments, but between that all are four students inching their way toward graduation from one of the most prestigious universities in the world — and making an unexpected friend who upsets their whole applecart.

Monty (Fraser) is a driven, competitive senior student at Harvard who’s laser-focused on churning out his thesis, getting his diploma, and going on to presumably be successful and wealthy. But when the only copy of his thesis is stolen by a homeless man named Simon (Pesci), Monty is blackmailed into taking care of this strange man in exchange for pages of his work. Simon moves into Monty’s house, which is shared with his other three roommates: insecure Jeff (Josh Hamilton), DJ playboy Everett (Patrick Dempsy), and adorable Courtney (Kelly).

Gradually, Simon becomes more than Monty’s blackmailer, graduating to mentor, friend, and even father-figure. This perceptive “bum,” as Simon likes to call himself, sees Monty going down the path of the soulless and myopic, and so he makes it his mission to pass on some worldly wisdom. For perhaps the first time since he’s come to college, Monty starts to grow as a human, becoming more humble, more compassionate, and more aware that he’s desperately in love with Courtney.

The film covers about a half-year leading up to graduation, and it’s quite the event-packed season. There’s an adopted chicken, an opera in a bathtub, a visit to Simon’s neglected past, a momentous dance, a confrontation in a Harvard classroom, and a whole lot of Monty agonizing about his future. With enough of these story beats, we’re allowed to really get to know these characters — especially Monty and Simon — and grow fiercely attached to them.

That said, I will not gainsay you if you say that With Honors tries a little too hard at times to appear profound and play for our heartstrings. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s a little flat, and that’s pretty typical for ’90s midcore dramas.

But I’m willing to forgive a whole lot when there are likable characters populating the film whom we want to achieve the happiest of endings. Maybe that’s one reason that I’m utterly fond of this movie, because it doesn’t hold back from moving its characters forward. The title points toward a graduation — both from Harvard and from a certain stage in a young person’s life — and if we can’t be with these characters after that day, we want some assurance that things will be OK for them. It almost feels that this movie is pushing back against the pessimistic outlook that Gen X had at the time, and I like that as well.

With a genuinely underrated soundtrack, inspiring speeches, a few earned laughs, a talented young cast, and all of the flannel that the decade had to offer, With Honors is far better than the drubbing that reviewers gave it back in the day. It was part of my college education. Maybe it can be part of yours.

Intermission!

• Did I mention how much this soundtrack rocks?
• “You’re in over your head. You’re drowning.”
• Monty blowing past the homeless person on his run
• “Ignore him! Keep going!”
• A radio broadcasting booth in a clock tower is perfect. Even more so with a rooster.
• “You’re looking very grim and formal this morning. Trying to pass for a Yaley?”
• “Harvard doesn’t have any standards left. They’ll let in anyone who’s bright.”
• Kids, this is what a MS-DOS word processor looked like. In 1994, I guess. Get with the Windows 3.1 program, Monty!
• It’s very nice when a computer gives you a heads up when your hard drive is about to fail.
• “I didn’t recognize you. You’re Dan Quayle! You came back to finish your education.”
• “There are 88 pages in that thesis!” “There are 83 pages now.”
• Boz cracked up and quit school
• Mr. One Crutch Man
• “He’s not just a pretty face. He’s also a great body.”
• “Never wanted to be a razor so bad in my life.”
• Monty delivering the blankets is the first crack in his hard demeanor. Empathy!
• “Hip it up, Hoppy!”
• “I’m not a loser, Harvard. I’m a quitter.”
• Always take a mega-bubble bath with a Viking helmet
• Jeff’s mom is an unseen terror
• “If you people are in line for muffins, you’re wasting your time!”
• “What are you expecting, an invasion?”
• Slow clap baby, slow clap
• “Now that I’ve taught at Harvard, boy, it’s all downhill from here.”
• Ah, the days of dot matrix printing
• “Corky, are you and Everett sleeping together?”
• “Wasn’t hard. Except for the plucking.”
• It’s not a ’90s movie without round sunglasses and berets
• “You know why you hate me so much Jeffrey? Because I look the way you feel.”
• “Interactive cable will save the world.”
• “How can he die? He didn’t live.”