Brad's Status

Brad's Status tells the story of a middle-aged man going through a mid-life crisis of sorts, after constantly comparing himself with his apparently happier, wealthier and more successful college friends.

Ben Stiller makes us hate this petty, jealous little guy as he reveals his most inner thoughts to us - and the a**hole he truly is. What an ugly, ugly character. And yet, we can't help but feel a little bit sorry for the guy... and some sympathy. All of his frustrations, all that inner pain, the inability to appreciate what he has, nor to understand why he just can't be happy... Stiller delivers this wonderfully. And we've all felt like that at some point in our lives, I guess.

Austin Abrams plays the son of this poor man, a much more balanced and mentally healthy person, who has to deal with his dad's selfishness and self-centeredness without loosing it on a crucial part of his life. His performance is also excellent, his natural calm delivers a great contrast to Stiller's constant "on-edge" state. Their interactions were all so... real, and heart warming.

This movie is a great opportunity to look at your own life achievements and confront the way you feel about them. Of course the movie has to be "slow", as some angry reviewers said. It's an introspective. By the end, you might realize that everybody's lives are special in their own way. The point is: we are alive. We're STILL alive. So let us be satisfied about it, and live.

Nice film and very thought provoking. It is a slow paced film but necessary with the narrative. Ben is such a versatile actor and this is evident in this film. In a world of money grabbing Hollywood Avenger-type franchises, this was a nice find. I often find these days that the lower the budget the stronger the narrative. Worth a watch for sure and I really enjoyed it.

Gore Vidal notoriously said, "Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies," which could be this movie's subtitle. Interesting subject matter I think, but this movie could have used more of an outright plot. Whether I'm right or not, this movie had the feel of having been written with a vague direction in mind but no structured outline set down beforehand. (The long bar conversation with the big-brown-eyed girl kind of came out of nowhere and I suspect did, to the writer as he sat at his laptop.) Ben Stiller was okay, but I felt his regular (facial) expressions of resentment could have used more variety and nuance. Knowing both ends of: not thrilling at running into people as I puttered along with nothing to brag about, to suddenly being put in charge of huge projects covered in the international press that suddenly made me the star of dinner parties, I found this an interesting movie, but wanted more of a story than a collection of vignettes. (For those who liked them, this movie I felt could almost go together as a sort loose trilogy with Stiller's GREENBERG and PERMANENT MIDNIGHT.)

Most people, even successful ones,have doubts about themselves but Brad really needs a psychiatrist for his feelings of inadequacy and this movie lays it on so thick viewers may feel they have been recruited to the position. There are a few moments when some dim realization begins to set in that material success may not be everything but not enough to provide any kind of balance. If this was intended as a comedy it is too dour. If it was intended as a slice of life it is not a slice I would want to see.

Brad (Ben Stiller) has lately been fretting about his "status" in the world of middle-agers. As he and his son Troy (Austin Abrams), a gifted musician and composer, are about to embark from Sacramento to a Boston tour of colleges, Bradley is in a funk. This is because he has been pondering the so-called more successful lives of his college pals. Jason (Luke Wilson) is a jet-setting, rich hedge-fund manager while Billy (Jemaine Clement) made a tech fortune and retired, at 40, on Maui. Worst of all, Craig (Michael Sheen) is a best-selling pundit on political issues and teaches at Harvard. What has he, Brad, done? For wife Melanie (Jenna Fischer) and himself, its strictly the mundane bourgeousie. Brad manages a non-profit that finds funds for other non-profits while Mel works for the California government. So, while Troy and his dad go to Harvard and Tufts for interviews, Brad upsets the apple cart by embarrassing Troy in front of friends and administrators. This is doubly so when Brad actually needs Craig's help to gain a 2nd interview with a dean! But, in truth, is Brad's status beyond lame? This wonderful, quirky film is almost a monologue as the viewer gets a running commentary by Brad of each and every situation. Yes, there are interludes of actual conversations and happenings and Abrams, Wilson, Clement, Sheen, Fischer and all of the rest do good work. But, its up to Stiller to carry the film with his wry, self- deprecating analysis of life and he does so beautifully. We bow to you, Ben! Scenery, costumes, illuminating script and deft direction all bring the film satisfying results. Most importantly, the movie truly gets it "right" on what makes a life well-lived. Go, go to Brad, film lovers! Hollywood rarely bestows gems like this anymore.