Why so much hype?

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Romantic relationships don't come with a user's manual and sometimes - to paraphrase Grover from "Kicking and Screaming" - despite our most intense efforts, things happen anyway. Though I've never been one to detail movies scene-by-scene, I believe the scene with Jane and Grover's chance meeting at the townie bar is one to go down in independent movie history. It is both a captivating and a moving scene which represents a perfect blend of just the right amount of emotion and humor epitomizing a semiotic balance between the spoken and the unspoken, as the two basic parameters the scene revolves around.It's daytime and Grover happens upon Jane at the bar - probably expecting to find her there - and after a fair share of drinks they sit down at their table and the magic of the scene starts to unravel. They realize they are both hammered, share a couple of semantically flawless exchanges (as to be expected from creative writing majors) and some innocent yet flirtatious looks after which Jane realizes she is late for her therapist's appointment and gets up to put on her coat. Grover gets behind her and hesitates to help her put on her coat; he's only an inch away, but last minute decides against doing it. He sees her off to the exit, feeling compelled to start with his 'confession' which is that "despite (his) most intense efforts, things happen anyway", stating that he has decided against developing any emotional attachments with anyone in senior year, before graduation, but yet insisting that after the alcohol wears off and Jane and him go back to their daily routine, they both still "feel this way" and hoping they get to "keep this". One could only hope that what he is referring to is the magic of that particular moment, the unplanned intimacy and unmistakable complicity they have managed to conjure up together leading up to that moment. To this Jane responds with a more sobering answer, putting things into perspective by saying that the whole thing shouldn't be conceived in such dramatic terms and that they still "have some time" since "it's a long life". She takes Grover's suggestion one step further, hypothesizing about what would happen should they indeed start a love affair and asking him if he thinks the affair would last. Upon Grover's quick retort ("That's a nice attitude"), Jane pauses for a while and leaves. Artistically speaking, Baumbach plays with the notions of the spoken and the unspoken interchangeably which adds to the spontaneous and dynamic character of the scene. Being centered on two people who have found themselves in this amazingly auspicious moment in time, this scene flawlessly captures the 'will they, won't they' conundrum so many of us have found ourselves in. When Jane leaves the bar the viewer is left with the feeling that just about anything might happen between our two protagonists after their 'moment' is over; out there, 'in the reality of life', they may have a storybook love affair, or indeed, by some weird twist of faith, may even never see each other again. It is a definite maybe and the dramatic value of the scene is that it so unpretentiously suggests to the viewer that one should always cherish the beauty of the moment and the fullness of the feelings one experiences in that particular moment, in spite of the whirlwind of ill-fated events that may potentially ensue. By having crafted such a flawless cinematic moment, Baumbach inevitably turns the viewer into a cheerleader for Grover and Jane's budding romance, almost to the point of compulsion.

Sophsitication, wit, and charm abound in Noah Baumbach's directorial debut, Kicking and Screaming. It's a movie about life. It's a movie about love. It's a movie about growing up. It's not about growing up in the childhood sense, but growing up as in maturing into true adulthood, post schooling. Kicking and Screaming is an ensemble film about a group of friends who have just graduated college and are now forced to take the next steps in their lives as they emerge into the real world. Some of them cope better than others, but they all struggle to find meaning in a post scholastic existence where they aren't quite sure what will become of them. The film is a sort of stream of consciousness, almost rambling foray into adult life in which we must make something of ourselves. It is a smart film, it is a sophisticated film, but it's almost too smart for its own good.We learn a few key things from Kicking and Screaming. One. Noah Baumbach is a smart guy who knows how to write and has a keen sense of reality and what makes us human. Two. He may be too smart to make a coherent and entertaining story about human interaction and psychology. And three. Having so many things on one's plate is overwhelming and it causes a film to lose all sense of purpose. Baumbach tackles a lot of subjects with Kicking and Screaming, but they sort of all run into each other and get tangled up with one another that this film loses its direction starts to feel less and less like a film and more like an astute psychological study that lacks any real emotion.I feel like the characters in Kicking and Screaming aren't as much human as they are simply vehicles for Baumbach to exemplify offbeat quirks and complex relationships. He's created very diverse and very smart characters, but they don't connect on the emotional level that is necessary for this film to work. Baumbach obviously knows what he is doing with this film but he barely misses the mark, only by throwing in too many quirks and too many off kilter personality traits that turn these characters into test subjects instead of humans. That being said, I enjoyed this film for its intelligence and integrity, but the flaws are there and they hold back the film from being really great. Kicking and Screaming would make a great psychological research paper that detailed hypothetical situations and closely examined the human interaction in these situations but, as a film, it lacks the extra step that makes the art of cinema something more than a research paper can accomplish.You can't diss anybody in this film for what they accomplish. I have lots of respect for the keen awareness Noah Baumbach displays about life in this film. It is certainly a good film and it is smarter than the average dribble we see today, but it's far from perfect. It isn't something I would watch again, but I don't regret checking it out for its fascinating sophisticated qualities.

"Kicking and Screaming" shows a considerable degree of self-awareness for a film about college graduation directed by a 25-year-old, but it is still an awkward, self-conscious film that is no more confident than its insecure characters. It was fortunate that in 1995, there were producers out there who believed a movie about depressed upper-middle class white boys had commercial potential, because those producers launched the career of Noah Baumbach, who would go on to make superior films in the next decade. As in his later films, Baumbach seems to take pity on pretentious and tremendously insecure characters while simultaneously taking delight in exposing their weaknesses to the world. But in "Kicking and Screaming," unlike, say, "The Squid and the Whale," Baumbach seems to identify just a little too closely with his young characters and seems to believe that they are less obnoxious than they are. "Kicking and Screaming"'s greatest strength and weakness is how well it captures an aspect of growing up not often captured on film: the resistance to change. Many films deal with characters who gradually change as they come of age, but "Kicking and Screaming" deals with characters who desire on some level to move on past their current selves but are hesitant to do anything about that desire. This also hurts the film, however, since very little changes from beginning to end, and when characters do change at all, they change less than they (or the film) believe. The stagnation would not be a problem if the film were a comedy, but, while the film is full of quirky characters and occasionally funny jokes, it deals with the dullness and depression too honestly to really work as a comedy. When wealthy Max, perhaps the most stagnant of all the characters, puts a "broken glass" sign over a pile of shattered glass rather than cleaning it up, it is good for a laugh, but as the film goes on, we get to know Max well enough that it almost stops being funny. "Kicking and Screaming" is certainly worth seeing for any fans of college-related movies and should probably be required viewing for anyone in their junior or senior years, since it could work as an effective warning against the perils that await graduates without plans. But the film, like its characters, has both too much self-consciousness and too little self-awareness to achieve the levels of comedic or dramatic potential that it hints at.

"Kicking and Screaming" was Noah Baumach's first film. He wrote and directed it at age 25, which is a real accomplishment because the film's very compelling. Riding the wave of the independent cinema in US in the early 90s, Baumbach created a tragicomedy of a tightly-wound group of friends grappling with the reality of life after graduation. Basically, their anxiety is borne out of accepting the responsibility of, finally, you know, growing up and joining the adult-force. As actor Chris Egieman (the articulate Max in the film) has pointed out in a recent interview, these guys are forced to accept that they must now take their lives seriously. Decisions and choices are optional no longer. The question of 'what next?' would need to be answered now. Bummer, right? Of course these early-20 white kids bicker and groan; someone of them delay the inevitable and slack around on the college campus, and at least one of them returns to school and retakes the same classes just so that "he can be a student again." The guys amuse themselves on dreary afternoons: they ask each other if they beat off; they do each others' girlfriends; they crowd around the beer bottles and cigarettes to play trivia games ("Name all 7 Jason Voorhees movies"). Mostly, they just hang out. And they talk; a lot. They philosophise the little things, every little small inconsequential detail that makes up their special universe.Baumbach has confessed of his love for improv comedy, and he imbues the comedy of the film with some of that. Not all of it works (the Cookie Man scene is a little cringe-inducing) but it's cute at least. But the dialogue is pointed, always witty and full of incisive detail. Although Baumbach and regular collaborator Wes Andresen have been compared with the great JD Salinger, I think Richard Linklater could use some love too."Kicking and Screaming" will appeal to a certain type of audience: the pseudo-intellectuals who take, say, their hobbies a bit too seriously. These hobbies or interests could be movies or even crossword puzzles. But this is how the film's characters want to spend their days. They want the world, their parents and their lovers to understand that they are normal for thinking that life before jobs or marriage or kids is as good as it gets. It will make the viewer feel 'OK' about belonging to a certain tribe, a community of like-minded individuals that others accuse, "you all speak the same way." This film implies that it's not lame even if the successful moneymaking pricks on the outside may snigger and chuckle. "Kicking and Screaming" is a wonderful, uplifting, funny, poignant film about the impending doom of adulthood.