Brad’s Status (2017)

Directed by: Mike White | 102 minutes | comedy, drama | Actors: Ben Stiller, Austin Abrams, Jenna Fischer, Michael Sheen, Jemaine Clement, Luke Wilson, Shazi Raja, Luisa Lee, Mike White, Xavier Grobet, Adam Capriolo, Felicia Shulman

Brad Sloan has it all right. The 47-year-old idealistic entrepreneur lives in a nice house with wife Melanie and son Troy. The marriage is going smoothly, Troy is a manageable 17-year-old and the company is also going well. Nothing to complain about? Anyway. Brad has it good, but his old college friends are better off. And they don’t live in a sleepy town like Sacramento.

In the comedy drama ‘Brad’s Status’, we spend a few days with father and son when Troy goes to college in Boston and Brad accompanies him. We go to Harvard, visit some bars and listen to Brad’s voiceover, which has a lot to say about aging, missed opportunities and the things that really matter. We also witness meaningful encounters with college student Ananya and Brad’s smug college friend Craig Fisher.

Although ‘Brad’s Status’ deals with themes that will also be familiar to Europeans, the story is quintessentially American. Such a long journey to look for a university with your posterity is mainly an American phenomenon. Moreover, in America status is much more important than in most European countries. When Brad goes to bed complaining about his relatively meager existence, we hear in his wife’s words – We have a great life. Go to sleep – our own reservations.

The fact that it is sometimes difficult to go along with Brad’s complaining does not detract from the quality of this film. The greatest asset is the heartwarming relationship between father and son, in which Austin Abrams plays a beautiful role as the equally sensitive and self-aware Troy. Brad’s Status often taps into Brad’s fantasies, about the lives of his successful friends, about the future of Troy, about a paradise beach in Hawaii. Those fantasies put Brad’s semi-melancholic musings into perspective and are often very witty.

Craftsmanship is also good with ‘Brad’s Status’. The dialogues are intelligent and lifelike, the story flows smoothly from incipient crisis to incipient acceptance, college town Boston provides an attractive backdrop and the casting is perfect down to the smallest roles. No, Brad’s Status doesn’t have anything new to say, but neither does this intelligent and moving film.