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.

Friends With Money: Review of Beatriz at Dinner

Beatriz at Dinner

Director: Miguel Arteta

By Alex Watson

The theme of white privilege is tackled hard in Miguel Arteta's Beatriz at Dinner.  Despite not taking full advantage of the increasing animosity on display, there is a powerful and tragic message underneath. At heart, this is a hard-hitting character study of a woman who still feels oppressed in the country she lives in. It is also a wonderful satire of Donald Trump's America and the tactlessness of the social elite.

Beatriz (Salma Hayek) is a healer and masseuse living in Los Angeles, who love the environment and animals. After a tough start, she travels out to Newport Beach for her appointment with client Cathy (Connie Britton). When car trouble prevents her departure, Cathy invites to stay for dinner much to the aggravation of her husband Grant (David Warchofsky). Once the party begins Beatriz has the displeasure of meeting boorish billionaire Doug (John Lithgow) whose views soon make her feel very unhappy.

The intentions of Beatriz at Dinner are carefully laid out early on. During the movie's opening, Beatriz finds that her beloved pet goat has been strangled to death. Even after years in America, she is still viewed as a guest and being accepted is a faraway dream. Her views on the world are that it is too be loved which almost immediately puts her at odds with her affluent hosts. Arteta does an excellent job of letting the anger simmer. Although Cathy claims to love Beatriz like family after aiding her daughter through cancer, their relationship is purely monetary. Even her attempts to bond with fellow rich guests Alex (Jay Duplass) and Shannon (Chloe Sevigny) are met with mockery. Her outcast status is made painfully obvious and her strained attempts at conversation threaten to pop the happy capitalist bubble.

When Doug arrives he firmly represents everything Beatriz despises. He's rude and arrogant, happily exploits workers, kills animals for fun, uproots people's homes to make way for his new hotel's and worst of all, he pollutes the earth. Yet despite all these shortcomings, his fellow co-workers and their wives adore him for providing the cash to live their wealthy lives. Almost immediately the pair butt heads and Mike White's script makes full use of the mutual hatred. Beatriz is the one compassionate voice in a room full comfortably blind followers. Although it begins to feel increasingly stagey, Arteta does a fine job of keeping this showdown between two world's feel brutally relevant. Doug is a man whom people will always admire no matter what wrongs are committed. The increasingly sharp dialogue lands the intended blows each time, but we wonder how much steam Beatriz really has left?

Although this is a brilliantly executed piece, Beatriz at Dinner feels way too short and the fact that Arteta refuses to give us the desire explosions leaves us feeling deflated. However, take nothing away from the shocking ending that occurs because the final image is one that will haunt you afterwards. Throughout the movie, there is a sense of injustice that carries well in Trump's America. Hard-working and kind people like Beatriz are considered a dying breed whose voice is gradually fading away. Her hosts will happily take all the wrong roads as long as the money keeps coming in. Arteta also gives a powerful social commentary at the difficulties immigrants now face and the uncertainty of what could be.

One of Hollywood's most underrated talents, Salma Hayek gives a performance of pure class as Beatriz. A very new age soul, Hayek injects a great deal of heart and feeling into this character. Believing that all humans are connected, her views are dismissed as ludicrous and her ever increasing disillusion is heartbreaking. John Lithgow makes a fine verbal duelling partner and as the repulsive Doug, he gives us the most gut-wrenching character 2017 will bring. Giving his character a sickening smugness, Lithgow forgoes any kind of charm and gives us the ugly face of Corporate America.

Beatriz at Dinner is a movie that although it leaves us wanting way more, is still a movie that deserves recognition.