Mar 16, 2018
Today’s movie is “Brad’s Status” (2017), the heartwarming drama written and directed by Mike White. The film follows Brad Sloan (Ben Stiller), a middle aged man taking his son Troy (Austin Abrams) on a college trip, which evokes all sorts of narrated thoughts about his own life and the meaning of success and wealth.
If you’re thinking this film is an examination of the real and false worries experienced by the middle class, you would be correct. It was the first thought I had watching this film, the feeling that while Brad is jealous of his former college friends’ success, his life is perfectly fine and that he’s better off than most other people in the world. And then, Troy’s Harvard friend, Ananya (Shazi Raja), tells Brad just that, which shifted my entire view of the film.
Ben Stiller is great in this Amazon Studios film, which feels like a nice companion piece to last year’s Netflix original, “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)”. The scripted narration matches his performance so well, really giving you the feeling of the tumultuous thoughts and feelings in his mind. I especially enjoyed how he thought his friends were living clashing with how his friends actually were, once he reached out to them. And the entire film is punctuated by wry humor.
I’ll admit, I really identified with Brad as a character, and have had similar struggles with understanding the purpose and value of my own life. I know that the last thing we need are more films about white, middle aged men struggling with feelings of inadequacy. But I also want to believe that the struggles of Brad in our changing society are also happening to other people, folks who need to be deprogrammed from a competitive mindset and to remember the passions that their youthful convictions.
“Brad’s Status” (2017) is a heartwarming, introspective film about the meaning of life, success, wealth, and parenthood. Ben Stiller turns in a great performance from a great script, tackling a somewhat overused premise with grace, honesty, a few smiles, and at least for me, a few tears. If you like heartwarming films, or want to see Ben Stiller in one of his better roles, this film is for you.
Rotten Tomatoes: 82% (CERTIFIED)
Metacritic: 71
One Movie Punch: 8.4/10
“Brad’s Status” (2017) is rated R and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.