If I Were a Rich Man: Review of Brad's Status

Brad's Status

Director: Mike White

By Alex Watson

Ever wondered if your life was worth a damn? Mike White's movie Brad's Status is a picture for anyone going through a crisis. We frequently compare our achievements against those who have greater success. We always want more and curse ourselves for not trying hard enough. White throughout makes us wonder where doing this actually gets us anywhere?

Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller) is a 40-something man who runs a non-profit organization. Even though he has a happy life with life Melanie (Jenna Fischer), he feels like a failure compared to rich buddies Craig Fisher (Michael Sheen), Billy Wearsitter (Jermaine Clement) and Jason Hatfield (Luke Wilson). A trip to Boston for his son Troy's (Austin Abrams) college interviews sparks a voyage of self-realisation.

From the opening of Brad's Status, it becomes clear that the man is at crisis point. His one employee has quit on him because he wanted to make money rather than beg people for it. Very much a man of first world problems, Brad's jealousy as he looks through his friend's social media updates is poorly masked. He questions everything in his life, even wondering if his supportive wife should have pushed him harder? The question of selling out is a big point in White's movie- his friends have all become rich through various ventures while Brad who is trying to help people feels like he is going backwards. When trying to go through a VIP line at the airport he is turned away because he 'only has silver membership'.

Constantly Brad mulls over how things could have been. His jaded view doesn't always make him a pleasant on-screen character. In one moment, he urges a young college student to sell out on her 'for the people' views because it is how people make money. Within seconds he is fighting for control and digging himself a deeper hole. Refreshingly the girl he talks to calls him out on his self-pity and entitlement. White's direction stunts the film's growth in places and he feels the need to map out precisely what Brad feels constantly. Its apparent to the audience due to the frequent voice-over where he bemoans "This is not the life I imagined!" His obliviousness to his superficial friends is at times hilarious because Brad has a life many single men would long for.

Brad's Status is a movie that is well aware of itself and White refuses to let him picture wallow in sadness. We all know there will be a lightbulb moment which helps Brad clue into his worth. His relationship with his son feels slightly underexplored even though his happiness and future are central to Brad. In one scene he panics to his son over his underdog status getting into Harvard and worries about him being a white kid without a sob story. There is also a good intelligence to the story and thankfully it never once urges us to feel any pity for our hero. White might not be the skilled director he wants to be yet, but his writing is always sharp and inviting.

Ben Stiller is on familiar ground in this piece, because of this is able to carve a very natural performance. His Brad is a man wrestling with himself and Stiller is able to make him believable without seeming self-loathing. Michael Sheen is what amounts to a brief cameo is wonderfully arrogant as his frenemy Craig. That one friend who constantly pats himself on the back while oblivious to the needs of other is all too familiar. Sheen does a great job of channelling a man clueless to his own unlikeability. Credit to Austin Abrams too, in an underused role as Brad's son, he has some fine underplayed moments alongside Stiller.

Brad's Status is not the indie darling it so desperately wants to be, but it will help anyone struggling to see the upside of life.

The Young & The Restless: Review of While We're Young

TIFF EXCLUSIVE

While We're Young

Director: Noah Baumbach

By Alex Watson

American director, Noah Baumbach is a different breed of film maker. In his movies such as The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg and more recently, Francis Ha, he has proven himself to be a film maker who never gives us characters we completely sympathize with but we are always drawn closer to. At the Toronto International Film Festival, he has brought us his new effort While We're Young which establishes the struggles an older married couple in the face of something new and exciting.

Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) are a forty-something married yet childless couple living in New York. Their lives are soon altered though by the emergence of young and hip duo Jamie (Adam Driver) and his wife Darby (Amanda Seyfried) whose world they becoming increasingly drawn towards. But along the way, the couple begin to lose sight of who they really are and seem to strive to become new people. But amidst their awe and fascination, cracks begin to appear.

While We're Young is another funny and ultimately real offering from Noah Baumback and it efficiently tackles the issue of growing old. The movie begins with a cleverly placed series of lines from Ibsen's 'The Master Builder' where the character Solness expresses concern to his wife about letting a young couple through the front door. This foreshadows the story that follows it and Baumbach succeeds in giving the movie the off-the-wall but depressingly crushing feel of real life and relationships.

In typical fashion, the characters are not easy to warm to as Josh is a once promising documentarian who has wasted over 10 years making his think piece on America and its wars. Cornelia has suffered several miscarriages and is having trouble adapting to her friends all having babies when she feels her opportunity has now disappeared. Josh is a man who takes himself far too seriously, but yet he has a compelling desire to piece his bright future back together. Things are not helped by his strained relationship with acclaimed film maker father in law Leslie (Charles Grodin) whose style he has forever wanted to emulate but has become lost along the way.

The moment that Jamie and Darby enter their world, a bombshell hits as they are loving couple that likes all things retro such as VHS players, typewriters and quirky adventures on old subway lines. In spite of the fact that Josh and Cornelia are dazzled at how full of life they are, they cannot escape the fact that they are acting above their own years. In one scene, Josh attempts at riding a bicycle in a cool fashion, only for his back to give out and him later being informed he has arthritis! Although they begin to live again, the elder couple soon begins to question the world they live in and whether it is something they truly believe in.

Unfortunately although this is a raw and hilarious ride, things begin to go wayward in the movies second half and are not helped by some painful misguided comical moments such as bizarre religious ceremony where people barf out their demons into a bucket. Also Josh's increasing jealousy of Jamie's success making his new film and his desire to prove he is a fraud alienates him from the audience later on. But let's not forget everyone, Baumbach is never one to go easy on his characters in the movie's he makes.

Ben Stiller in his second effort alongside Baumbach does well as Josh. His usual sarcastic wit is very much present and it does prosper the characterization and gives a decent protrayal of a man who is chronically disappointed with wasting his gift. As Cornelia Naomi Watts is solid as usual as a woman almost drowning in her own childless world when all around her seems to be popping out kids! She also thrives on the movies more funny elements which showcase that this girl can be comedic when she needs to be.

Adam Driver firmly stamps his talent as one of Hollywood's new wave, fans of TV show Girls will be familiar with his ability to play hip yet mysterious characters and Jamie has been written just perfectly for him. His upcoming appearance in JJ Abrams' Star Wars movie will be one to look out for.

While We're Young is yet more proof that a Noah Baumbach film is a very different type of experience and will leaving coming out with a ticking brain and a belly full of laughs. In the long run this maybe won't be once of his more memorable efforts, but it will certainly rank as one that is more original.