Brad's Status

Dir: Mike White

2017

***

When sitting down to watch Brad’s Status I expected to see a comedy drama, as this is what the film claimed to be and it’s kind of what you expect theses days from a Ben Stiller film. After viewing it I wouldn’t call it a comedy at all, rather I’d call it a drama with a Jemaine Clement cameo. Written, directed and starring Mike White, Brad’s Status is a reflective and observational drama about middle age. More specifically, it’s about middle age White regret from someone who doesn’t realise how successful they are. Stiller plays the idyllic Brad Sloan who owns a non-profit organization that helps others. He lives a comfortable life with his loving wife Melanie (Jenna Fischer) who works in government and his only son Troy (Austin Abrams). Brad is troubled by where he finds himself in his forty-seven year old life and find himself constantly distracted by all of the ‘what ifs’ that go through his mind. This intensifies when he accompanies his son on a trip to look at possible collages. His son Troy is a talented musician and tells his father that his teachers think he is good enough to get into Harvard, something that makes Brad both proud and somewhat jealous. During their trip Brad thinks of his old group of close collage friends; Craig Fisher (Michael Sheen) who is a successful lecturer, author and television personality working in government; Billy Wearslter (Jemaine Clement), a successful entrepreneur who retired a wealthy man when he was just forty years old; Jason Hatfield (Luke Wilson), a successful and wealthy business man who owns his own plane and Nick Pascale (Mike White), a Hollywood big-shot whose actions (and houses) regularly grace the covers of glossy magazines. We hear all of Brad’s thoughts through Stiller’s narration and, at first, it’s quite hard to sit through. It screams of white privileged and seeing Brad complain while acknowledging his rather successful life by anyone’s standards is grating. He was getting zero sympathy from me. However, as the story develops, so to does Brad and his ideological look on the world. His thoughts are refreshingly brutal. I don’t like the term ‘first world problems’ very much, of course there are people who are always much worse off but that doesn’t mean Joe average can’t have problems too. Brad clearly wants more than his fair share as it were but really he’s disappointed in himself for not pushing himself more. He is clearly very competitive, as many of us are, and I feel that this film isn’t really about an individual, or indeed White middle-class men, but of society in general. It’s all down to how we interpret success. There is one part where Brad blames his wife complacency on his lack of success, which I found rather brutal but profoundly refreshing. It’s a horrible thing to think but that’s what I liked about it – nice people think horrible things. Brad sees his son’s talent as a way to make up for his lost ambitions. After arriving at Harvard to meet with admissions, they find out they have missed the appointment by one day. Brad argues to see the admission committee, but Troy gets him to back down. Melanie suggests that Brad should call his old friend Craig, which he reluctantly agrees. At a restaurant, Brad calls Billy to get Craig's number and finds out that his friend Nick got married a few years back, but he was not invited. He then laments how his friends' exclusion of him confirms his fears: that he is not only a failure in his own eyes but to others as well. After talking to Crag, Craig gets Troy a meeting with the famous Harvard music professor and the dean of admissions. At this point we see that Brad is quietly proud to say he never sold out but secretly wishes he had – like his friends did. That night Brad and Troy meet Ananya (Shazi Raja), a high school musician friend of Troy, and her friend Maya (Luisa Lee). Brad relishes Annaya's idealism and her respect for his work, reminding him of his better days. She also reveals to Brad that she did not like Craig's lectures since she finds him sexist and arrogant. After having dinner with them, Brad and Troy turn down the offer of drinks with them and return to their hotel but Brad can not sleep so he decides to sneak out and have a drink with Ananya while Troy sleeps. He completely offloads on her and tells her that the non-profit life was a mistake and he should have tried to make money. Ananya openly tells him that he is living the white man's privilege, a great turning point in the film. Brad acknowledges that he shouldn’t have said everything he says but you also can’t help but agree with him that, even though Ananya is right on and has worked hard from a tough background, she’s clearly a success-thirsty go-getter who will eventually sell-out without even realising. Troy meets his role model music composer thanks to Craig pulling some strings. However, when Troy tells Brad that his idol is not as cool as he thought, they get in an argument where Brad tells Troy that he cannot judge people for selling out because he is just living in a bubble. It’s a great clash of ‘never meet your heroes’ vs ‘lower your expectations’. The film is full of little clashes and contradictions such as this and they are the core of the story’s strength. Brad soon learns that his friends all have problems too, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and in the end Brad is thankful that at least he is alive. The conclusion is a little disappointing but it’s kind of the truth in many ways then one. If we are always to strive to greatness then it is going to come as a disappointment when we ultimately fail – and fail most of us will. It might leave a sour taste in most viewers mouths but the scripts observations are very real. Overall its rather a contemplative film that many will find depressing, although there is a positive message in there that we need to appreciate what we do have. In many respects it’s the last film I need or want to watch but it totally won me over with its honesty and the way it knocks the sugar coating off most mainstream Hollywood movies – for that I stand and applaud it.