Kicking and Screaming (1995)'s comments

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saveferris

Oh, I've been to Prague!

12 years 2 months ago

kzer_za

One of the saddest comedies I've ever seen (I don't mean that as a criticism).

8 years ago

Noah Baumbach's first film, Kicking and Screaming, is a subverted coming of age story where a bunch of college graduates kind of fail TO come of age, or refuse to. Starting on a seldom-used Pixies track, it got my attention right away, but lost it meandering through these people's floundering lives. Though there are a couple of comedy idiots in the group, and on paper, the dialog is quite witty, the fact that so many of many of them are pretentious kept me at an intellectual remove. Even background conversations (Altman seems an inspiration) were arch and pretentious. The film mocks the attitude - after all, these guys are rudderless failures no matter how smart they feel - but we're still asked to spend time with these bozos. The romance, all in flashback, might want to suggest something about relationships, but I'm not sure it does. Baumbach flips the usual tropes by minimizing growth, but that's a big sacrifice. It does, nevertheless, capture the listless confusion of being out in a structureless world, ESPECIALLY for Liberal Arts students not shaped into a specific cog for the work place. I think this one would grow on me over time, but for now, it leaves me a little cold.

1 year ago