Kicking and Screaming

source: Kicking and Screaming

Armond White was right! Noah Baumbach's mother should have had him aborted! Nah, that's more than a little too harsh, but his debut film isn't very good. It shows a bit of promise, since some of the dialogue is okay here, but, overall, this is a talky, indie bore. A bunch of college students graduate but don't know where to go from there. Most of them just hang around campus, drinking and smoking and trying to bed students. The main story surrounds Josh Hamilton and his girlfriend, Olivia d'Abo, who doesn't even tell Hamilton she's going to Prague after graduation. This story is never at all compelling because Hamilton is such an unlikeable little douchebag. D'Abo probably isn't much better, but she's so attractive you can't want her to hang around Hamilton. Eric Stolz and Parker Posey are the most famous actors in the cast. Chris Eigeman has little to do but remind us how much better a director Whit Stillman is. Baumbach made a couple of other indie failures before hitting upon The Squid and the Whale. That and his subsequent two films, Margot at the Wedding and Greenberg, have been very good, so he did finally find his footing.

This is an all-time favorite. Not just for the nuanced performances and witty banter, but because my particular group of friends my senior year of college bore striking resemblances to the "hawks" (or "cougars" or whatever the hell Skippy wants to call the group). One of our girlfriends actually made the comment, "you guys all talk the same." So I can understand why some may pass this film over, but since the action and dialogue hit so close to home, I have to love this movie. It gets better with repeated viewings and the writing, acting, and chemistry are spotless. At times I felt like this movie was made just for me. And that's a comforting feeling. I can tell that Baumbach felt a lot of the same things I did in college - Max's speech at the Hole comes to mind, as well as the writing class scene, and especially, "I'm Max Belmont, I do nothing." Fortunately, it's SUCH a well-made film. So much goes on in the corners - the renaissance festival guys, the conversations on top of conversations, Grover's dad on the phone talking about Riley's marriage. It's a great movie that deserves to be seen. Even if you're not a hopeless postgrad loser.

I liked The Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale but Kicking and Screaming is so inferior to that. It's obvious that this film is his first effort. It is so cliché and slow moving that it is unbearable to watch. It is like the poor man's version of St. Elmo's Fire. I imagine Noah watched St. Elmo's Fire and tried to copy it scene by scene to create an updated version for the 1990's. For the most part, the acting is good and convincing. Although I only paid a few bucks to rent it on Comcast I felt totally ripped off. The only good thing I can say is that it encouraged me (and probably many others) that they too can easily sell their tired,uninspired scripts as well!!

KICKING AND SCREAMING (1995) **** Josh Hamilton, Olivia d' Abo, Chris Eigeman, Parker Posey, Eric Stoltz, Jason Wiles, Carlos Jacott, Cara Buono. To label this the perfect Generation X film so far would do an injustice to this exceptionally brilliant and dead accurate depiction of twentysomethings embarking upon The Real World and grasping futilely to remain in their comfortable existence at college. More like an update of "Diner" with five college pals griping, searching and dealing with their recent shift of reality with some truly biting dialogue and wholly believeable sequences. Written and directed by Noah Baumbach (who has a cameo in the "cow f***er" exchange). Perfect.

This movie was recommended to me, and I now question that person's taste in just about everything, let alone movies. Let's put it this way, I almost always leave a movie with a sense of satisfaction. Even when my friends detest them, I usually find something that enjoyed about a film. However, this movie was horrid. Almost every single character was annoying and pathetic. The relationships between these shallow twenty-somethings are underdeveloped and the script is the complete opposite of witty. The box said, "Two Thumbs Up!" Yet, I don't understand how any respectable critic could give this movie even one thumbs-up. If anything it deserves a "Two Middle Fingers-up". Eric Stoltz and Parker Posey are about the only thing good in this film and they've both had dozens of better roles prior and since.

"Kicking and Screaming" shows a considerable degree of self-awareness for a film about college graduation directed by a 25-year-old, but it is still an awkward, self-conscious film that is no more confident than its insecure characters. It was fortunate that in 1995, there were producers out there who believed a movie about depressed upper-middle class white boys had commercial potential, because those producers launched the career of Noah Baumbach, who would go on to make superior films in the next decade. As in his later films, Baumbach seems to take pity on pretentious and tremendously insecure characters while simultaneously taking delight in exposing their weaknesses to the world. But in "Kicking and Screaming," unlike, say, "The Squid and the Whale," Baumbach seems to identify just a little too closely with his young characters and seems to believe that they are less obnoxious than they are. "Kicking and Screaming"'s greatest strength and weakness is how well it captures an aspect of growing up not often captured on film: the resistance to change. Many films deal with characters who gradually change as they come of age, but "Kicking and Screaming" deals with characters who desire on some level to move on past their current selves but are hesitant to do anything about that desire. This also hurts the film, however, since very little changes from beginning to end, and when characters do change at all, they change less than they (or the film) believe. The stagnation would not be a problem if the film were a comedy, but, while the film is full of quirky characters and occasionally funny jokes, it deals with the dullness and depression too honestly to really work as a comedy. When wealthy Max, perhaps the most stagnant of all the characters, puts a "broken glass" sign over a pile of shattered glass rather than cleaning it up, it is good for a laugh, but as the film goes on, we get to know Max well enough that it almost stops being funny. "Kicking and Screaming" is certainly worth seeing for any fans of college-related movies and should probably be required viewing for anyone in their junior or senior years, since it could work as an effective warning against the perils that await graduates without plans. But the film, like its characters, has both too much self-consciousness and too little self-awareness to achieve the levels of comedic or dramatic potential that it hints at.

I could hardly stand this movie at all, because I saw it when I was too old - 33. I think if I had seen it between 22-25, I would have loved it. If you can relate to the 'still idealistic', 'hopes fading', 'aimless direction to where you want your life to be' problems of young adulthood, then see this. If you're so over those feelings (like I am) and would just think "Just grow up!" about people like that, then AVOID this movie.

This movie is not great. It is an accurate portrayal, nothing more. All the characters are the clichéd prototypes of college life, all those who are interesting for the first part of school but get gradually more and more annoying as semesters plug on. And eventually, you no longer really want to spend time with them, because they are going no where and doing nothing, and haven't their entire "career" as students. Its just a bunch of high schoolers without boundaries or parents, and it isn't art, or even interesting once the initial humor and novelty wears off and the realization comes: this movie is the people I hate. Because they are pretentious posers unwilling to put forth the dedication necessary to become masters of any craft, much like the director at the time when he made this. Hopefully he will at some point, The Squid and the Whale is at least moving in the right direction.

If I had to pick one movie that I was forced to watch again and again, it may be this one. Not that this is Citizen Kane or The Godfather, it's just that it speaks to me. Never has anyone dealt with disaffection in such a witty manner. Every character has something to say on the subject, and it's hysterical. I really GET all of the characters, even if I can't identify with some of them. None of the actors appear to be TRYING, which most seem to do in films of this genre. Josh Hamilton's portrayal of Grover is subtle but outstanding. Olivia d'Abo is radiant, and (retainer and all), I can't take my eyes off of her. Chris Eigeman steals every scene he's in, as usual, and missed his calling as a stand-up comedian - he's that funny. Baumbach's use of flashbacks is one of the most effective I've ever seen, and the transitions to flashbacks look amazing. And finally, this movie is infinitely quotable. "Cookie Man, go away", "I gotta go - I gotta sleep with a freshman", "Jane 2: Electric Boogaloo?", and "Oh, I've been to Prague" still crack me up after 20 or 30 viewings of this film (need the DVD to come out before my tape wears out). So I can't say enough about this film. If you haven't seen it, go buy it. P.S. What happened to Noah Baumbach? Sophomore and Junior jinxes with his two follow-ups. Bad movies. Oh well, "Kicking and Screaming" more than makes up for them.