Brad's Status (2017)

A father takes his son to tour colleges on the East Coast and meets up with an old friend who makes him feel inferior about his life's choices.

Director:

Mike White

Writer:

Mike White

Stars:

Ben Stiller, Austin Abrams, Jenna Fischer

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ben Stiller	...	Brad Sloan
Austin Abrams	...	Troy Sloan
Jenna Fischer	...	Melanie Sloan
Michael Sheen	...	Craig Fisher
Jemaine Clement	...	Billy Wearslter
Luke Wilson	...	Jason Hatfield
Shazi Raja	...	Ananya
Luisa Lee	...	Maya
Mike White	...	Nick Pascale
Xavier Grobet	...	Xavier
Adam Capriolo	...	Chris Kanew
Felicia Shulman	...	Cherie Parkinson
Jane Wheeler	...	Harvard Mother
Karl Graboshas	...	Admission Officer
Jon Bernad	...	Admissions Receptionist

Storyline

Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller) runs his own non-profit organization, and lives a comfortable life with his loving wife and son, but cannot help contemplating how his old friends Craig Fisher (Michael Sheen), Billy Wearslter (Jemaine Clement), Jason Hatfield (Luke Wilson), and Nick Pascale (Mike White) are rich and accomplished. Craig works in the White House and published a best-selling book; Jason owns a hedge fund firm; Billy sold a company he founded, moved to Maui, and retired; and Nick is a Hollywood director. Brad's wife, Melanie (Jenna Fischer), tries to comfort Brad, telling him that they do not need to compare themselves with the wealthiest 1%..

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Plot Keywords:

midlife crisis | fantasy sequence | envy | father son relationship | wealth | 

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Taglines:

The success you've been searching for may be right next to you.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language

Did You Know?

Trivia

Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller) claims to be forty-seven when Ben is actually fifty-one-years-old.

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Goofs

The license plate of the family Dodge is 5GY45R when they leave to the airport. However, when Melanie is ready to leave the airport the license plate shows 3GH43B.

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Quotes

Brad Sloan: I'm alive...

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Connections

Featured in Half in the Bag: 2017 Movie Catch-up: Part 1 (2018)

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Soundtracks

The Red Blues
Written and performed by Red Garland
Courtesy of Concord Music Group, Inc.

User Reviews

Interesting but too incidental

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.)

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 September 2017 (USA)

Also Known As:

Brad's Status

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$89,921, 17 September 2017

Gross USA:

$2,133,158

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,816,527

Company Credits

Production Co:

Amazon Studios, Montreal Casting, Plan B Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.00 : 1