Kicking and Screaming Review by Larry McGillicuddy Copyright Larry McGillicuddy 1997
**** (out of 4) Directed by Noah Baumbach Starring Josh Hamilton, Olivia D' Abo, Chris Eigeman, Eric Stoltz, Carlos Jacott, Parker Posey, Jason Wiles, Cara Buono, Elliott Gould
"The prose is like the bastard child of Raymond Carver", one character in a literary class says. You would think a character with such a great line would be a main character in the movie. However, he is a nameless character, and never shows up or says anything else for the rest of the film. This line is spoken about halfway through Kicking and Screaming, during a flashback scene demonstrating the first time two of the characters met. There are several lines like this in the scene, also said by nameless people, as they discuss how a short story has a "1,000 years of solitude bend to it", and is written in "that pseudo russian novel ilk." The professor says no dialogue, but conveys a character that is simultaneously proud and condescending of his students. All of this happens before the scene even gets to it's purpose, which is showing the first time Grover and Jane met each other. Noah Baumbach is interested in details. Baumbach gives us a vivid background so his characters can exist and interact in the rea world, amongst extras who say real dialogue and have real facial expressions. He starts with a beautiful canvas, and onto it he paints one of the most memorable stories ever told with a camera.
Kicking and Screaming opens as it's main characters have just graduated from college. In one brilliant extended scene, a college graduation party, we learn more about the characters and their relationships than most movies tell us in 2 hours. Grover is a stubborn individual who doesn't accept change. So when his girlfriend Jane tells him she has received a scholarship to Prague, he decides to stick with his plan of living in Brooklyn. Max is a bitter man who uses sarcasm to hide his true fears of having a meaningless existence in this world. Otis is an intelligent but odd character with strange habits like wearing a pajama tops underneath his suit. Skippy is their naive friend whose girlfriend Miami adores him the way you adore a puppy.
The movie focuses mainly on the relationship between Grover and Jane. After the breakup, Grover tries to live on, but his attempt to do so is challenged as Jane constantly leaves messages on his answering machine. She speaks in a sad, desperate voice, afraid that Grover has forgotten about her. He just stands there emotionless and listens, and cuts the answering machine off before she says something that will make him pick up the phone. The movie intercuts these scenes with flashbacks that show the beginning of their relationship, including their argument in the literary class, and subsequent encounters in coffeehouses and bars as they begin to confide in one another. Grover and Jane are confused and nervous as they learn about each other and begin to fall in love. Rarely before has chemistry been so evident in a movie.
Max spends his time sitting at home trying to find something to do. Usually he ends up singing songs inspired by household items, filling out the crossword puzzle, or berating himself in the mirror because he "does nothing." This maudlin existence is interrupted when he meets Kate, Grover's 16 year old tutee. She is an intelligent beyond her years, no nonsense teenager. She doesn't take sarcastic rants, from him or from anybody else. He responds to that. He's finally found someone who won't take his crap and he likes it.
Otis has majored in mechanical engineering and is supposed to go to graduate school in Milwaukee. At the last minute he decides not to go and delays his admission. He spends the year working in a video store with the most ridiculous categories fo rit's movies (terminal illness, dog-buddy pictures, interesting failures). This is the weakest part of the movie I think, because it is played too broadly. It's basically making fun of Blockbuster and other big video chains, and while much of this is really funny, I think it belongs in a different movie.
In a similar situation as Otis is Skippy, who re-enrolls in college to stay near Miami, who was a year behind him. Skippy has the habit of saying inappropriate things at the wrong time, and stating the grotesquely obvious followed by "if you know what I mean."
Late in the film, Grover sees something and actually gets a spontaneous idea. He tries to talk himself out of it, but can't resist. He runs up to a counter, but someone prevents from achieving his goal. In a heartfelt monologue filled with confused anger, apologetic sorrow, and inspired pleas, he begs this person to allow him to accomplish this. It's something he has to do. It will be a great moment in his life, and it would be criminal for anyone to prevent him from doing it. His speech is convincing, and she pulls some strings to allow it to happen. He is elated. He finally did it. No more giving up and letting things be. Unfortunately, he is missing an item necessary for his quest, and is turned away at the last minute. He can do this tomorrow, but that's 24 more hours for him to talk himself out of it. Will the enthusiasm still be there?
The constant theme in Kicking in Screaming is that these characters are afraid to move on with life after college. They don't know anything else except staying together, and are afraid of what the outside world has to offer them. Grover refuses to move with Jane to Prague, Max stays at home doing the crossworld puzzle, Otis defers admission to grad school, and Skippy re-enrolls to stay near Miami. Each of them is afraid of the challenges life is offering them. Probably the most admirable thing about Kicking and Screaming is that it has answers for some of the characters, but others it does not. For some it will take them longer to figure out what their purpose in the real world will be. Or maybe they will end up like Chet, the local bartender who has been going to college for 10 years because that's what he does in life.
Baumbach has assembled a brilliant ensemble of first-rate character actors, all perfectly suited for their parts. Hamilton and D'Abo find the perfect notes in their scenes together, as they speak with lumps in their throats while falling in love. Carlos Jacott gives one of the funniest deadpan performances in recent memory as Otis, and Eric Stoltz adds another great character to his resume as Chet. Eigeman, whose Max is similar to characters he essayed in Metropolitan and Barcelona, is perfectly cast and Jason Wiles perfectly captures the endearing lost puppy quality of Skippy that Posey's Miami finds so attractive. Also showing up in a memorable cameo is Elliott Gould as Grover's father, a sad-eyed man who has not recovered from his separation with his wife, and whose relationship with his son primarily exists of talking about New York Knick games.
Noah Baumbach is a master of meaningful and relevant dialogue. Every line, wether spoken by a main character or an extra makes sense. He is also a master with the camera, as his freeze frame introduction into the flashback scenes gives them a poignant, bittersweet feel. This is his first movie and he has already mastered filmmaking at every single level. It is an experience I will never forget. Ten years from now, people will talk about the debut movie of the greatest filmmaker in America, and they will call it Kicking and Screaming.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews