Kicking and Screaming (1995)

Following graduation, a handful of college students do nothing and talk about it wittily.

Director:

Noah Baumbach

Writers:

Noah Baumbach (story), Oliver Berkman (story),

Stars:

Josh Hamilton, Samuel Gould, Catherine Kellner

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Josh Hamilton	...	Grover
Samuel Gould	...	Pete (as Sam Gould)
Catherine Kellner	...	Gail
Jonathan Baumbach	...	Professor
John Lehr	...	Louis
Olivia d'Abo	...	Jane
Peter Czernin	...	Lester
Carlos Jacott	...	Otis
Chris Eigeman	...	Max
Eric Stoltz	...	Chet
Eliza Roberts	...	Josselyn
Jason Wiles	...	Skippy
Parker Posey	...	Miami
Christopher Reed	...	Friedrich (as Chris Reed)
Noah Baumbach	...	Danny

Storyline

After college graduation, Grover's girlfriend Jane tells him she's moving to Prague to study writing. Grover declines to accompany her, deciding instead to move in with several friends, all of whom can't quite work up the inertia to escape their university's pull. Nobody wants to make any big decisions that would radically alter his life, yet none of them wants to end up like Chet, the professional student who tends bar and is in his tenth year of university studies.

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Plot Keywords:

college | bar | college graduation | writing | friend | 

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Taglines:

Anxiety loves company.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong language, and some sexuality

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 October 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Desmoi filias

Filming Locations:

Occidental College -1600 Campus Road, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$704,543 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Trimark Pictures, Castleberg Productions, Sandollar Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film was almost accepted in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, but Noah Baumbach refused to cut fifteen minutes as they requested, and the film was ultimately rejected.

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Goofs

At the airport, when Grover says, "Shit, I wish I hadn't seen that", his mark is clearly visible on the floor when he walks away.

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Quotes

Max: What I used to able to pass off as a bad summer could now potentially turn into a bad life.

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Connections

References Ferris Bueller (1990)

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Soundtracks

"Tonight I Think I'm Gonna Go Downtown"
Written by Jimmie Dale Gilmore and John Reed
Performed by Jimmie Dale Gilmore

User Reviews

A self-conscious film that almost manages to be profound

"Kicking and Screaming" shows a considerable degree of self-awareness for a film about college graduation directed by a 25-year-old, but it is still an awkward, self-conscious film that is no more confident than its insecure characters.

It was fortunate that in 1995, there were producers out there who believed a movie about depressed upper-middle class white boys had commercial potential, because those producers launched the career of Noah Baumbach, who would go on to make superior films in the next decade. As in his later films, Baumbach seems to take pity on pretentious and tremendously insecure characters while simultaneously taking delight in exposing their weaknesses to the world. But in "Kicking and Screaming," unlike, say, "The Squid and the Whale," Baumbach seems to identify just a little too closely with his young characters and seems to believe that they are less obnoxious than they are.

"Kicking and Screaming"'s greatest strength and weakness is how well it captures an aspect of growing up not often captured on film: the resistance to change. Many films deal with characters who gradually change as they come of age, but "Kicking and Screaming" deals with characters who desire on some level to move on past their current selves but are hesitant to do anything about that desire. This also hurts the film, however, since very little changes from beginning to end, and when characters do change at all, they change less than they (or the film) believe.

The stagnation would not be a problem if the film were a comedy, but, while the film is full of quirky characters and occasionally funny jokes, it deals with the dullness and depression too honestly to really work as a comedy. When wealthy Max, perhaps the most stagnant of all the characters, puts a "broken glass" sign over a pile of shattered glass rather than cleaning it up, it is good for a laugh, but as the film goes on, we get to know Max well enough that it almost stops being funny.

"Kicking and Screaming" is certainly worth seeing for any fans of college-related movies and should probably be required viewing for anyone in their junior or senior years, since it could work as an effective warning against the perils that await graduates without plans. But the film, like its characters, has both too much self-consciousness and too little self-awareness to achieve the levels of comedic or dramatic potential that it hints at.