brad's status

Brad (Ben Stiller) is distressed about his status. He feels inadequate compared to his college buddies who have gone off to have ridiculously luxurious lives of private planes, escapades, and dwelling spreads in Architectural Digest. In the midst of his crisis--or perhaps at the very root of this crisis--Brad's son Troy (Austin Abrams) is about to go to college, and the two are off to travel from Sacramento across the coast to tour the top choice, Harvard. Brad is either hazily unaware or willfully unaware of his son's plans and dreams. Mike White's carefully directed picture follows the two--with run-ins with coeds and an old friend of Brad, now a famed political commentator (Michael Sheen)--utilizing Stiller's dryly aching voice-overs to great effect. Like Brad's cloistered, heady character, the picture doesn't stretch too far but offers up some amusing ruminations through his slightly exaggerated inner thoughts. The acting and witty casting choices all around are strong and some scenes shine in their depictions of awkward human interaction (especially a dinner scene between Sheen and Stiller). The brittle violin score (by Mark Mothersbaugh) adds to the muted absurdity and sadness within Brad's neuroses as does an inspired use of Dvořák's "Humoresque." If one takes Brad's litany of complaints as droll rather than irritating, the movie has a sly emotional impact. It's not a transformative picture, but welcome as a closely attached character study, even if the central character is melancholy company. ***

-Jeffery Berg

donald cried

Set in snow-covered Warwick, Rhode Island, Donald Cried is a darkly comic piece of an old friendship awkwardly re-lit. Donned in over-sized glasses and with a greasy mop of chopped-short-banged hair, the kooky, loquacious, spontaneously rude Donald (played winningly by the film's Writer / Director Kristopher Avedisian) has a way of insulting people and putting people at unease through storytelling. Having to listen to these windy, winding tales and having a need for cash (after his grandmother's death) is why Donald's former childhood friend Peter (Jesse Wakeman) sticks around longer than he had hoped for. Donald is a "heartfelt mix-up" living in a room of KISS dolls wallpapered with explicit posters of women and movie posters like one for 1979's Prophecy. Described as "former metal-heads," Donald seems stuck in his past while blu-toothy Peter has unhappily moved on to a stint as a Manhattan banker. A run-in with a former student in a greasy spoon is a one of many of the film's finely-tuned yet naturalistic moments. The drab, wood-paneled sets and the photography (by Sam Fleischner) create an atmosphere of dull malaise in colors of gray, maroon, plum, and washed-out blue, The snow too (the film begins on a narrow road within the walls of plowed snow) adds to the feeling of stuck-ness. Avedisian's first full-length recalls the sorrow and the pity of Miguel Arteta and Mike White's Chuck & Buck. Also, the use of Milli Vanilli is always welcome. ***

-Jeffery Berg