opened with $80,682 in its opening weekend (7/19-21) and raised 34% ($273,373) in the second weekend. Critical response On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of critics, based on 108 collected reviews, gave the film a positive review. The site’s consensus states, "Presenting a sexual awakening with surprising candor, Tadpole is a spiky coming of age tale that benefits from a deeply felt performance by Aaron Stanford and a script that is unafraid to wade into morally choppy waters." Though some critics cited the film's modest filming methods as drawbacks, multiple reviews praised the performances. Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote, "Were it not for the charm of Mr. Stanford...Oscar might have emerged as an insufferably pretentious hothouse flower. But the actor (23 when the movie was made) flawlessly captures his character's aching, doe-eyed sincerity and yearning goodness." Holden added "At its most endearing, the film conveys the same intense identification with Oscar's thoughts and mood swings that Mr. Salinger brought to his legendary character, and its adolescent-eyed view of Manhattan's Upper East Side as a glowing, mysterious wonderland is deeply Salinger-esque." Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly concurred, stating "The best instinct of director Gary Winick (The Tic Code) and screenwriters Heather McGowan and Niels Mueller is to emphasize old-fashioned courtliness in this likable comedy -- good manners that go a long way toward convincing viewers the movie's got something fresh to say even while it's set in familiar territory." Roger Ebert gave a more mixed review where he voiced his discomfort with the film's premise, writing "Too much has happened in the arena of sexual politics since 'The Graduate''' and I kept thinking that since Oscar was 15 and his stepmother and her friend were about 40, this plot would have been unthinkable if the genders had been reversed." He also critiqued the film's level of plausibility and its development of characters, but praised Bebe Neuwirth's performance. Ebert concluded, "A longer movie (this one is barely feature length at 77 minutes) might have made the relationships more nuanced and convincing." Awards and nominations Tadpole'' won the following awards: Sundance Film Festival Directing Award (Gary Winick) Seattle Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress (Bebe Neuwirth) National Board of Review Award for Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking It received the following nominations: Sundance Film Film Festival Grand Jury Prize (Winick) Satellite Award for Best Actor in