Kicking and Screaming

365 Films

Entry #108

Kicking and Screaming (1995)

Directed by Noah Baumbach

Kicking and Screaming is the one Baumbach title with which I have a somewhat limited relationship.  I don’t think I had any idea of its existence when released in 1995, and unfortunately, its title became re-appropriated by a horrendous Will Farrell soccer comedy ten years later.  Long story short, Baumbach appeared to me half formed as if by magic in 2004 with The Life Aquatic, then as a fully realized human being with The Squid and the Whale a year later.  I had no interest in any of his career output prior to that.  Damn, I keep forgetting how hard it is to convey sarcasm through toneless words on a screen (man, am I annoying) and should take this opportunity to point out that I think one should always examine the entirety of a creative output should they happen to stumble upon an artist for which they have great respect.  With all that being said, Kicking and Screaming is tremendously funny and is a damn near perfect display of Baumbach’s remarkably adroit skill (in his mid twenties no less!) with regards to writing dialogue and dynamics for groups.  The characters in Kicking and Screaming are all  barely clinging to merely the faintest semblance of their collegiate life and yet Baumbach gracefully posits them all as completely unique individuals who are just happening to suffer under a collective delusion.  It’s as if he found a way to remind us that even when they all attempt to sound like one another, the individualism inherent to their upbringing and education forces them to “interpret” what they believe to be collective dynamic of the group.  Kicking and Screaming might be as visually primitive as any first time feature has the right to be, it should be noted that this is merely a result of the budget.  Baumbach’s dexterity with comedic timing and character blocking is incredibly evident throughout as are his miraculous gifts for writing spiky, conversational dialogue.  To sum up, he makes up for it tremendously in other departments of directing.  The characters in this film are constantly aware of the clichéd stasis of their own lives, yet they remain powerless to do anything about it.  Whether that lack of power is a legitimate force or rather a self-imposed doomed fate is the gray area in which Baumbach aims to reside.  There is no answer to the post collegiate dilemma, but it is telling that the film concludes with a flashback to a conversation wherein one character tells another how he can’t wait to grow old with her.  These guys may not know what they want out of life, they just know that they’ll always want something else.  Baumbach’s masterstroke is letting us decide whether this is defeat or victory.