Kicking and Screaming (1995 film)

Written and directed by Noah Baumbach and from a story by Baumbach and Oliver Berkman, Kicking and Screaming is the story of a group of young people who deal with post-college life as they are unsure of what to do afterwards. The film explores several characters who are on the verge of adulthood as they also deal with life without education and college parties. Starring Josh Hamilton, Carlos Jacott, Chris Eigeman, Olivia d’Abo, Parker Posey, Elliott Gould, and Eric Stoltz. Kicking and Screaming is a delightful yet engaging film from Noah Baumbach.

The film is essentially the story of a group of post-college graduates dealing with life after college as they all figure out what to do while reminiscing their life as students. Leading the pack is Grover (Josh Hamilton) who had just broken up with his girlfriend Jane (Olivia d’Abo) after she decides to take post-graduate study to Prague. Grover spends most of his time with his friends Max (Chris Eigeman), Otis (Carlos Jacott), Skippy (Jason Wiles), and a bartender/student named Chet (Eric Stoltz) as they all go through their own personal odyssey into finding life after school. While Skippy chooses to remain a student with his girlfriend Miami (Parker Posey), Otis becomes unsure of what to do as he eventually takes a job at a video store. Max meanwhile, comments on everything as he is the most unsure of what to do as he and Grover hang around the campus.

Noah Baumbach’s screenplay explores the fear of emerging into adulthood as well as the fear of failure as many of the characters in the film have no idea where they’re going. Throughout the film, Grover reflects on his relationship with Jane as he deals with her phone messages where he would fill his heartbreak by having sex with younger students. Whenever Grover is with his buddies, they do trivia and such while discussing about what to do next in life as Otis is anxious about failure as he forms a friendship with Chet. Chet is a man in his early 30s who often hangs around campus as he is also a bartender where he reveals why he’s still a student in a notable scene between him and Grover. The script also explores the world of relationships as it involves Max dealing with loneliness as he would eventually hook up with an underage student in Kate (Cara Buono).

The script features a unique structure that begins on graduation day and then ends the film during finals. The structure helps unveil how these characters deal with their sense of no direction as it progresses to the point where they begin to learn more about each other and what they really at this stage in life. While there’s a looseness to the story, it still plays to the fact that these people are wandering around just trying to see where they can go or what they need to do to fill their time.

Baumbach’s direction is quite straightforward in terms of the compositions that Baumbach creates as he doesn’t aim for any sense of style. Instead, he chooses to focus on the world of college life as realistic as it is through the perspective of this small ensemble. Not wanting to make something that reveled in sentimentality, Baumbach wanted to make sure that film felt loose in the way he has his actors be present at a location. Whether it’s in the campus, a club, or in the dorms, Baumbach find ways to create some sense of atmosphere in the film where the characters would comment on something or ponder what are they doing here. Baumbach also uses flashback to help tell Grover’s storyline as he pines for Jane by creating scenes where it’s shot in monochrome colors to introduce the flashback. Overall, Baumbach creates a very compelling yet witty film about the world of post-college life.

Cinematographer Steven Bernstein does nice work with the film‘s cinematography to display the colorful world of the college campus along with some stylish lights for some of the film‘s club scenes. Editor J. Kathleen Gibson does excellent work with the editing to create some rhythmic cuts for the conversations including a scene where Kate berates a truck driver. Production designer Dan Whifler and set decorator Gail Bennett do wonderful work with the set pieces such as the house that the guys live in to some of the dorms that Grover visits.

Costume designer Mary Jane Fort does terrific work with the costumes to play out the slacker look of some of the characters along with the more stylish clothes that Miami wears. Sound mixer Ed White does superb work with the sound to capture the atmosphere of the parties as well as the scenes in the bar. The film’s music by Phil Marshall is very good for its electronic score to play out Grover’s flashbacks with Jane. The soundtrack features a wide mix of music that includes Pixies, Blondie, Bob Marley, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Nick Drake, They Might Be Giants, Alex Chilton, and Freedy Johnston.

The casting by Ellie Kanner is brilliant for the ensemble that is created as it features appearances from Perrey Reeves and Marissa Ribisi as a couple of students Grover sleeps with, Dean Cameron as a video store manager, Noah Baumbach as a student who asks a very provocative question, Christopher Reed as the Euro-trash student Friedrich, and Elliott Gould in a small but funny role as Grover’s dad. Cara Buono is a delight as the underage student Kate who deals with Parker Posey is wonderful as the outgoing Miami who deals with Skippy’s slacker lifestyle as well as the changing times of the parties. Olivia d’Abo is excellent as the aspiring writer Jane who leaves Grover as she is seen in flashback as someone who confides in Grover over their love of writing.

Jason Wile is very good as the directionless Skippy who decides to enroll again as away to figure out his life. Eric Stolz is great as the very witty and philosophical bartender/student Chet who revels in his experience as a student while basking in the fact that there’s still a lot of things to learn. Carlos Jacott is amazing as the neurotic Otis who deals with the idea that he might face rejection as well as musing on his insecurities as it’s a very funny performance. Chris Eigeman is incredible as the talkative Max who deals with his own lack of direction and social life as he ponders about what to do. Finally, there’s Josh Hamilton in a remarkable performance as Grover who deals with his break-up with Jane as well as his own lack of direction as he tries to finish his own work as a writer.

***Additional DVD Material Written from 1/6/15-1/16/15***

The 2006 Region 1 DVD from the Criterion Collection presents the film in a newly restored high-definition digital transfer under the supervision of its writer/director Noah Baumbach with a new Dolby Digital 5.1 audio remix as the film is given a richer look as well as a broader sound. The special features of the DVD all relates to its production as the first of these supplements is a 12-minute interview with Noah Baumbach. Baumbach discusses the genesis of the script as well as what he wanted to say. He also talked about how it got passed through while discussing how the script would change over the years into the final version of the film. The interview also has Baumbach talking about its production as well as some of the aspects of the marketing which he didn’t like but it did end up helping the film into becoming the cult classic that it is.

The 26-minute conversation between Baumbach and actors Josh Hamilton, Chris Eigeman, and Carlos Jacott has the four talking about the film and the production. Even as they all talk about the characters and the story itself while Baumbach also revealed some of the difficulties that went on in pre-production. The actors talk about their approach to improvisation which added to the film’s comedy as well as their experience in the New York Film Festival in 1995 where it premiered and the film’s difficulty to be marketed to a wide audience. They also talk about its cult and how it managed to endure over the years as the four men are surprised by how good it still is.

One major special feature in the DVD is a 2000 short film entitled Conrad and Butler in “Conrad and Butler Take a Vacation” that stars Carlos Jacott and John Lehr who both wrote the short with Baumbach as it included notes about the short which Baumbach made on digital video in the spring of 2000 as a part of something in the hopes that it would be a TV show and a film that never materialized. It revolves around two guys who had nothing to do as they both take a vacation in the home one of the guys’ grandparents where everything they had planned to do doesn’t happen. It’s a very funny 30-minute short due to the sense of improvisational humor and banter between Jacott and Lehr.

There’s nine minutes of three deleted scenes that is featured where Baumbach explains through text into why they got cut out. The first is a scene between Grover and Jane where Jane revealed she went out with Chet. The second scene involving Grover and Marisa Ribisi’s Charlotte character at a club as it plays to Grover’s aimlessness in sleeping with freshmen college girls as he later meets one of her roommates who is with another guy which becomes awkward. The third and final scene involve Skippy and John Lehr’s Louis character where the latter was supposed to be a bigger character but it got cut as Baumbach created Chet as it plays to Skippy meeting Louis and see what he’s become. The nine-minute brief interview segments with Baumbach and cast members Cara Buono, Chris Eigeman, Olivia d’Abo, Josh Hamilton, and Carlos Jacott for a special on the Independent Film Channel in 1995 basically has everyone talking about the film and their own interpretations of the story as well as their own experiences. The special features also include a theatrical trailer for the film.

The DVD set also features an essay from the famed Chicago-based film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum entitled Reasons for Kicking and Screaming. The essay talks about the film and Baumbach’s approach to humor as well as create something that is real about post-graduate life. Especially as it plays to the world of characters who are overly-intellectual as they would often embark on the realization that they don’t have the answers for everything as well as the fact that they say they’ve read this but haven’t. Rosenbaum talks about the connections Baumbach would have with filmmakers like Whit Stillman and Wes Anderson as the latter is a collaborator of Baumbach. Even as Rosenbaum believes that Baumbach’s greatest influence in the film is Jean Renoir in terms of creating long takes to get the actors comfortable and talk through dialogue easily. It’s a wonderful essay that really gets the film in every way and form.

***End of DVD Tidbits***

Kicking and Screaming is an extraordinary film from Noah Baumbach. Armed with an amazing ensemble cast, witty dialogue, and engaging views on post-college life. It’s a film that revels into the world of pre-adulthood that is filled with great realism and humor as it follows a group of people unsure of where to go. In the end, Kicking and Screaming is an outstanding film from Noah Baumbach.

Noah Baumbach Films: Highball - Mr. Jealousy - The Squid & the Whale - Margot at the Wedding - Greenberg - Frances Ha - While We're Young - Mistress America - De Palma - The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) - Marriage Story - (White Noise (2022 film)) - The Auteurs #41: Noah Baumbach

© thevoid99 2012

Hulk

Based on the Marvel comic by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Hulk is the story of a scientist who turns into a huge, green monster whenever he gets angry as he fights off various enemies while wanting to calm the beast from within. Directed by Ang Lee and screenplay by James Schamus, Michael France, and John Turman, that is based on a story by James Schamus. The film is an origin story of how Bruce Banner became the Incredible Hulk as well as his troubled relationship with his father David. Starring Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly, Sam Elliot, Josh Lucas, Celia Weston, Cara Buono, and Nick Nolte. Hulk is a dazzling and stylish comic-book action-drama from Ang Lee.

Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) is a young scientist working at Berkeley as he and ex-girlfriend Betty Ross (Jennifer Connelly) are experimenting with regeneration. Though the experiments are still a work in progress, it gets the attention of Major Glenn Talbot (Josh Lucas) who wants the two to work on the experiments for military reasons. Bruce refuses as an accident during a test has him save a scientist only to be exposed to gamma radiation. Though Bruce seems fine, he starts to have nightmares of strange images that he thinks are from a distant memory as a strange man (Nick Nolte) enters his room claiming to be his real father David. The encounter has Bruce unsure of who he is as the effects of the radiation has him dealing with his own emotions leading to him growing into a big monster.

After Betty learns what happens to Bruce, the incident gets the attention of her father in General Ross (Sam Elliot) who realizes what is happening. Wanting Betty to stay away from Bruce, things go bad when David sends his newly-mutated dogs to go after Betty until Bruce as this new monster saves her. Despite having little recollections about what happens to him as this monster, Bruce reveals to Betty about what it’s like as he’s later captured via tranquilizer by Betty’s father. Taken to a secret base, Bruce learns about his past as General Ross reveals that Bruce’s father conducted an experiment over mutating DNA that could heal wounds and injuries that later went out of control. Yet, David would experiment on himself as it was passed on to Bruce after his birth where things seemed fine. Yet, General Ross learns about the dangerous experiment where things go bad as it led all sorts of trouble.

After Bruce and Betty learn about what had happened those years ago, General Ross wants to do things right until an injured Talbot decides to take control in his desire to experiment on Bruce. With General Ross unable to take control and Betty forced to leave the secret lab, she later meets with David Banner who reveals what he had done as he asks to see Bruce one more time. Instead, Talbot’s attempt to experiment on Bruce goes wrong as the Hulk emerges once again to wreak havoc forcing General Ross and his soldiers to fight. Still, Bruce would later have another surprise in store for him from the man who created him.

The film is essentially an origin story of how Bruce Banner became the Incredible Hulk. Yet, it’s told in a very different style than most comic-book related pictures are presented as the film opens with a prologue of how David Banner created this experiment on mutant DNA regeneration and then pass it on to his son back in the early 1960s. Things eventually go wrong with the military authorities as it would lead to a young Bruce Banner losing his parents at an early age until he becomes a man who is unsure of his past only to discover who he really is and why he could be a threat.

Screenwriters James Schamus, Michael France, and John Turman explore Bruce Banner as a man who starts off as this calm and intelligent scientist that feels haunted by these dreams that he believes are from a distant memory. He’s also someone who doesn’t want to be involved in any kind of confrontation. He’s also a man that has a lot to give as he’s very close with his ex-girlfriend Betty who knows him better than anyone. Even as he becomes the Hulk, she is the one person that can get him to calm down and make him human again. Supporting characters like Betty Ross and her father do have depth as the latter expresses regret over how he handled things in his professional career as well as the estranged relationship he has with Betty.

The one character that adds to Bruce’s own internal conflict is his mysterious father David who is seen as this brilliant scientist who becomes paranoid and fearful over what Bruce might’ve become. Yet, he is later re-introduced as a haggard janitor wanting to finish the experiment he felt he hadn’t come close to finishing. The father-son dynamic of the film, which is a prominent theme to Ang Lee’s earlier work, adds to a dramatic layer rarely told in comic-book based action-blockbusters. It’s a unique element to the film that is well-executed until the third act where things become a bit ridiculous as it would also include a lot of exposition over the events that happened in the film’s prologue.

Ang Lee’s direction is definitely told in a stylish manner as if he wanted to create a cinematic comic book. Featuring arrays of multiple split-screens and dazzling editing styles, Lee aimed what he was looking for to play up some of the film’s action and intense dramatic moments. Yet, there’s parts of these montages that tend to overwhelm the story a bit though it’s part of the spirit Lee wanted to create a live-action comic book. While there’s lots of amazing compositions and styles in the way he will shoot scenes from multiple angles to play up the dramatic tension. Notably as he wants to emphasize on objects or things that will help build up the suspense.

For some of the film’s intense action moments that involve the Hulk, Lee goes for a lot of big scenes with wide depth of field shots set in parts of Utah and Arizona for Hulk’s chase scene. While some of the visual effects do look a bit wobbly, there is still an impressive element to the way they look as Hulk would fight off all sorts of things in the film. Including some of the fights with the exception of the film’s ridiculous climax between Bruce and David Banner. Despite some of the film’s flaws, Ang Lee does manage to create an engaging film that does more than what it is expected in its genre.

Cinematographer Frederick Elmes does excellent work with the film‘s very vibrant and colorful cinematography to play up the different locations of the film while setting dark colors for some of the film‘s nighttime interior and exterior scenes. Editor Tim Squyers does amazing work with the film‘s unique editing to play up varying cutting styles that manages to keep the film‘s brisk pace very while creating some wonderful montages for some of the film‘s dramatic and action moments. Production designer Rick Heinrichs, with art directors John Dexter and Greg Papalia and set decorator Cheryl Carasik, does nice work with the set pieces such as the secret lab that Ross runs to the old 60s home that the young Bruce lived in as a kid.

Costume designer Marit Allen does very good work with the costumes from the nerdy look that Bruce Banner has to the more haggard clothing of David Banner. Visual effects supervisors Dennis Muren and Bruce Holcomb do terrific work with the look of the Hulk, despite some flaws, to capture the hugeness of the monster. Sound designers Eugene Gearty and Gary Rydstrom, along with sound editor Richard Hymns, do superb work with the sound to capture the intensity of the Hulk‘s growls as well as the explosions and other sound effects to play up Banner‘s transformation into the Hulk. The film’s score by Danny Elfman is pretty good for its bombastic orchestral score that features elements Indian vocals in the mix to make it feel different while the soundtrack includes a song by Velvet Revolver in the film’s closing credits.

The casting by Avy Kaufman and Franklyn Warren is brilliant for the ensemble that is created as it includes small appearances from Paul Kersey as the young David Banner, Todd Tesen as the young Ross, Mike Erwin as the teenage Bruce, Rhiannon Leigh Wryn as the adolescent Betty, Michael and David Kronenberg as the young Bruce, Kevin Rankin as Bruce and Betty’s scientist friend Harper, Celia Weston as Bruce’s stepmother, Cara Buono as Bruce’s real mother in the film’s prologue, and as a couple of security guards early in the film, Stan Lee and the original Hulk in Lou Ferrigno, who also does the voice for the Hulk. Josh Lucas is terrible as the villainous Talbot as Lucas does nothing to a very typical villain as he ends up looking very smug and tries to be intimidating only for him to end up being a complete moron.

Sam Elliot is excellent as General Ross as a man that wants to keep Bruce under control in hopes to not the same mistakes that he did years ago though he has issues trying to do what is right as he is estranged from his daughter. Nick Nolte is pretty good as the mysterious David Banner who tries to help Bruce in finding a cure only to have regrets as it’s a very intense one from Nolte though he goes over-the-top late in the film. Jennifer Connelly is quite fine in her role as Betty Ross as she does present as the emotional calm for Bruce though her character at times is a bit underwritten. Finally, there’s Eric Bana as Bruce Banner where Bana definitely gets to show the conflict in Banner as well as a man who is consumed by fear only to give in to the anger as the Incredible Hulk where Bana manages to create a very compelling performance.

Though it’s flawed in terms of its presentation, Hulk is still an entertaining film from Ang Lee thanks in part to Eric Bana’s reserved performance. While it’s not one of the great films of the comic book origin films nor among one of Lee’s best work. It is still a film worth seeing for the way Lee chooses to present the film that does make it stand out from the rest. In the end, Hulk is a fun action-drama from Ang Lee.

Ang Lee Films: Pushing Hands - The Wedding Banquet - Eat Drink Man Woman - Sense & Sensibility (1995 film) - The Ice Storm - Ride with the Devil - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - The Hire: Chosen - Brokeback Mountain - Lust, Caution - Taking Woodstock - Life of Pi - Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk - The Auteurs #19: Ang Lee

Related: Iron Man - The Incredible Hulk - Iron Man 2 - Thor - Captain America: The First Avenger - The Avengers (2012 film)

© thevoid99 2012