Twenty-five-year-old Noah Baumbach originally conceived of his first film around the time of his graduation. And, while the heart of Kicking and Screaming lies in a poignant love story, much of the humour found in the film derives from four young men who are all at critical crossroads in their life and displaying tendencies towards a mid-life crisis while still in their early 20s. Eric Stoltz headlines the cast as a perennial student who is somewhat wiser than his confused friends, but still grappling with the same issues.
Writing about the small isues which are faced - or not as the case may be - in everyday life, Baumbach claims his characters' malaise and inability to act is not about doing nothing, 'but about the surreptitious preparation to do something'.
'Probably I'm exorcising my demons by writing about them,' laughs the director. But his teasing reply belies the skill which he demonstrates in his precise and subtle dialogue revealing the desperation and pathos behind the group's amusing yet often lacerating conversations. And indeed, Kicking and Screaming is also about secret languages and the way they can become a shorthand and comfort for close friends.
So many movies about male relationships involves a group revelling in their adolescence; Baumbach has come up with something completely the oppposite. Kicking and Screaming is about kids behaving like old men. 'If these characters were in their 40s, this would be a sad story,' says Baumbach, 'but at 22, their neuroses and obsessions are amusing.' Monika Maurer
Prod: Joel Castleberg
Dir/Scr: Noah Baumbach
Ph: Steven Bernstein
Ed: J Kathleen Gibson
Cast: Eric Stoltz, Josh Hamilton, Olivia d'Abo, Cara Buono, Chris Eigeman, Parker Posey, Jason Wiles, Carlos Jacott
International sales: Trimark
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