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Rating:  -
I fell in love with this movie the first time I saw it in 1997. Have seen it numerous times. Decided I would buy it for my personal collection. Dark, monotone humor, combined with the drama of searching for self is what makes this movie incredible. It's not for everyone. You'll either love it or hate it.
Rating: -
During one particularly illuminating sequence of Kicking and Screaming, Grover (Josh Hamilton) has to watch as his short story is critiqued in class. "It's beautifully written," says someone who will shortly become very close to him. "However, I've noticed that characters in Grover's stories spend all their time discussing the least important things, like what to have for dinner or the best-looking model in the Victoria's Secret catalog. I see nothing wrong with dealing with the important subject matter."
Many people level the same accusation against this gem of Gen-X ennui, so easy to underestimate with all the throwaway conversation about Traci Austin, Bud Bowl II, and movies starring monkeys. It's a little picture, little meaning it has a small budget and no one gets cancer or anything. "I'm a little guy," says Otis (Carlos Jacott as one of the film's more memorable characters). "I can't do all the things the big guys do." A friend offers a small measure of comfort: "What are you talking about, you're like a monster, you're huge." Don't underestimate yourself, Otis, for however "little" it may be, Kicking and Screaming is really about the biggest things there are: our dreams in a lonely, chaotic world where we think we know God, only to find He's not so much dead as just not answering the phone.
At the center of the picture are four college friends for whom graduation is a form of birth trauma; they stare into the real world abyss that awaits (and the abyss most certainly stares back). Grover's girlfriend Jane (Olivia d'Abo) has ruined his post-commencement plans by joining a writing program in Prague. "How will that work if you're living with me in Brooklyn?" he asks. "It will be the same, except I'll be in Prague." Otis is moving to Milwaukee, where he'll continue his education and live with his mother. Skippy (Jason Wiles) has no concrete plans other than to read all the great short novels. Chris Eigeman, playing the curmudgeon intellectual he has made an indie film career out of (see: all of Whit Stillman's pictures), says it best: "Eight hours ago, I was Max Belmont, English major, college senior. Now, I am Max Belmont who does nothing. All of my accomplishments are in the past." Yes, school has prepared them for nothing, but now they have a thousand ways of expressing it.
Taking a cue from perpetual student Chet (Eric Stoltz as the kind of individual who paraphrases himself), they collectively decide to "postpone that get-started year" by renting a house on campus and continuing to live life much as they had before graduation (but without the grades). The rhythms of college are quickly reinstituted as Otis and Chet start a book club, Max eats at the cafeteria, Skippy audits classes, and Grover hits the campus bars with an eye for "freshman betties" whose sexual congress he hopes will cleanse him of any unresolved feelings about Jane. They all meet where Chet tends bar to rationalize life's absurdities and prove their intellectual worth with trivia.
Writer/director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) instills in each of his characters juvenile affectations consistent with a desire to climb back in the womb (most notably Otis and his pajama tops worn as formalwear). It's worth reminding that they all have childish, even pet-like names (Grover has the added bonus of the phonetic "grow" in it); despite superficially "mature" traits like blazer-wearing, cigarette-smoking, and scotch-drinking, they're unable or unwilling to take care of themselves outside the collegiate cocoon. The world does not run by the rules they know, if it has any rules at all - even their games of trivia have become so contextually incestuous that they are entertaining only to themselves.
The crux of everything is Grover's deteriorating relationship with Jane, juxtaposed as it is with its genesis. When they make that first connection, it's strange for Grover to think they'd gone four years on the same campus without meeting, "catching the same colds and being bit by the same mosquitoes." We like to think of love being a uniquely spiritual entity, a product of fate - that there is a special someone we have to be with. Grover is so grasping for design in his solipsistic existence that he interprets divinity in something as mundane as a flight attendant fidgeting with a model airplane. But as he soon finds out, perhaps these things are instead a product of chance, controlled by circumstance and nothing else; that there is no meaning in things other than the meanings we give them. The love we feel doesn't necessarily last forever; a deigned future does not exist, no matter how entitled to it we may feel. All that we can be sure of is the moment of now.
How do you make God laugh? begins Chet's favorite joke. Make a plan.
Interesting footnote: Olivia d'Abo (Jane) is probably known to most as Karen Arnold from the hit television show The Wonder Years. She is also jarringly British, if you've ever heard her give an interview. One of her first motion picture performances was in the Bo Derek film Bolero, where she controversially appeared nude. D'Abo herself claims she was born in 1971, which would have made her thirteen at the time of that picture's release.
Rating: -
Like many people, I was first exposed to Noah Baumbach's work with the film The Squid and the Whale. I was impressed with the genuine portrayal of the characters, and although I was disturbed by some scenes, the movie intrigued me enough to check out Kicking & Screaming. Not to be confused with the abhorrent Will Ferrell soccer movie, this film treads in the relatively untouched direction of post-college angst. However, it was hardly overwrought, like many films that enter such territory. Instead, the film features subtle humor and some of the most genuine, witty dialogue I have ever seen. Although the DVD is somewhat overpriced, as is often the case with these independent films, it is certainly a good purchase for anyone who enjoys Baumbach, and I highly recommend it.
Rating: -
I am so happy that "Kicking and Screaming" is FINALLY out on DVD! It is hands down one of the best depictions of what life is like for witty, clever, horny and commitment-phobic "guys" trying to figure out what happens next now that they must face the real world and can no longer hide behind being "in school" (although some of them do try very hard). I loved everything about this film. The dialogue is razor sharp, and the acting is incredible - especially Josh Hamilton as Grover. The "I Must Go To Prague Today" airport scene gets me every time. I just wish that there was a soundtrack because I love that haunting instrumental that plays at the very end of the film. I would really like to know the name and composer of this piece of music.
Rating:  -
Having recently reviewed "The Squid and the Whale," Noah Baumbach's brilliant and literate divorce comedy (what I contend is 2005's Best Screenplay), I decided to take another look at his first picture, "Kicking And Screaming." "Kicking and Screaming" is a 1995 comedy targeting recent college graduates and their hesitation about setting foot in the real world. Representing an age demographic similar to mine, "Kicking" is an eminently quotable (but not entirely believable) gem of a screenplay delivered with great conviction by a talented and attractive cast.
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. While I realize many people see this as a spot-on portrait of a generation in flux, I found much of "Kicking" only marginally realistic. (Don't get excited yet, this is a good review.) I clearly identified with how close this group of kids had become. The cadence of their speech, the way they understand one another, the sharing of ritualistic games and jokes--this is all handled superbly. To paraphrase some remarks of peripheral characters throughout the film--these guys all sound the same, what are they--in love? Having developed the same type of symbiotic relationships within my college "group," I found this quite amusing. However, I do find the film slightly disingenous about life after graduation. The characters of "Kicking" remain at school, don't work (except one as a clerk in a video store) and are left to their own devices for a year with little explanation. Seems to me that within a group of kids this smart, at least one character would have pursued (or been forced to) accept a job or some responsibility.
That point mentioned, "Kicking and Screaming" is a highly entertaining and funny examination of post-graduate ennui. Baumbach's screenplay boasts lots of memorable dialogue, lots of cleverness you might find yourself "borrowing." Without this script, many of these characters might have come across as insufferable. Nice work by the leads--Josh Hamilton, Chris Eigeman and Carlos Jacott--further draw you into this offbeat tale. Indie favorites Parker Posey and Eric Stoltz (as a philosopher bartender/perennial student) are also noteworthy.
There isn't much more I can say. "Kicking and Screaming" is beloved in the lexicon of this type of film. But while it is enjoyable (I've seen it many time through the years), I don't think it is quite the "classic" some make it out to be. Clever and fun, if you identify with the characters in "Kicking"--it's a hoot. If you don't, however, they may just annoy you as spoiled self-involved brats. But as I am a self-proclaimed brat, I embraced this movie because "I like a bartender that drinks." KGHarris, 11/06.
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