Kicking and Screaming

Noah Baumbach – 1995 – USA

Noah Baumbach’s first feature spends a few months with a group of too-witty-for-their-own-good Ivy League graduates as they attempt – or don’t attempt – to transition from campus life into the real world.  In this debut effort, Baumbach – much like his less intellectual contemporary Kevin Smith – is obviously paddling in the fresh wake of Richard Linklater and Whit Stillman, and I was glad to see that he proceeded to hone his style into something more recognizable as his own in ensuring films.  (The film borrows at least two actors from Dazed and Confused and at least one of Stillman’s regulars, Chris Eigeman, along with many other elements from Stillman’s Metropolitan.)  These are just my film-geek observations; none of it means that the film isn’t good.  Besides, I’d rather people imitate Linklater and Stillman versus Tarantino any day of the week.  The title is ironic, of course, because the characters in the film display little energy or enthusiasm at all, let alone enough passion to start kicking or screaming.  In place of ideas, interests or skills, this group of friends has only a wealth of academic knowledge about philosophy and literature, which leads to nothing but painful awkwardness whenever they come into contact with the messiness of everyday life.  They have no choice but to commiserate together, as well, since their arcane pontifications make them seem snobby to all outsiders.  The scenes in the film are basically a relentless stream of humiliation as irony is used alternately as a crutch and a mask to cover up extreme self-doubt and aimlessness.  Yes, it is just as painful as it sounds, and it’s also consistently hilarious.