2008 Woodie Awards
film snob
By: Chris Jaynes
Issue date: 4/20/07 Section: TimeOut
A girl, after being rejected from the local campus bar for being underage, asks Grover, "You got a fake ID?"
Grover replies, "No, I've got a real ID. I'm twenty two." The beautiful freshmen co-ed looks stunned, "Wow old man."
Unfortunately, I do know what the day after your twenty-second birthday feels like, and it's a different kind of hangover from your twenty-first. The realization that you are that much closer to the real world and graduation leaves a sense of dread in the pit of your stomach. All of you about to graduate should be required to view Noah Baumbach's "Kicking and Screaming" to get your diploma. And, no, this is not the movie with Will Ferrell about soccer.
"Kicking and Screaming" follows four college friends immediately following their graduation. Though it could be marketed as some existential horror-story, it is sarcastically entertaining. The plot is as aimless and fascinating as the characters in it.
Don't confuse this film with other college-esque films. This is nothing like "Animal House" or "Van Wilder." It is a humorously honest though, and a-dark-at-times look at what graduates go through after they are asked to grow up and become functioning members of society. Part of the humor is these four choose not to grow up. Realizing that Otis doesn't really want to leave to grad school, Max tells Grover that he needs to be like the mothers dropping their kindergartners at school for the first day and just walk away-and they do.
Grover, the aspiring writer, is left behind by his girlfriend who goes to grad school in Prague. After being hit by this news, Grover returns to his group of friends who are playing their trivial trivia game. The way the game works is someone asks a question like, "Name seven movies where monkeys play a key role," and to answer you have to "ding" in.
One question was, "Name the top five worst things to happen to you after graduation." Grover "dings" in and answers, "Spending the rest of my life with you guys."Your group of friends may not actually "ding" in for your game, but know you have some sort of a trivia game that looks ridiculous to others.
Grover replies, "No, I've got a real ID. I'm twenty two." The beautiful freshmen co-ed looks stunned, "Wow old man."
Unfortunately, I do know what the day after your twenty-second birthday feels like, and it's a different kind of hangover from your twenty-first. The realization that you are that much closer to the real world and graduation leaves a sense of dread in the pit of your stomach. All of you about to graduate should be required to view Noah Baumbach's "Kicking and Screaming" to get your diploma. And, no, this is not the movie with Will Ferrell about soccer.
"Kicking and Screaming" follows four college friends immediately following their graduation. Though it could be marketed as some existential horror-story, it is sarcastically entertaining. The plot is as aimless and fascinating as the characters in it.
Don't confuse this film with other college-esque films. This is nothing like "Animal House" or "Van Wilder." It is a humorously honest though, and a-dark-at-times look at what graduates go through after they are asked to grow up and become functioning members of society. Part of the humor is these four choose not to grow up. Realizing that Otis doesn't really want to leave to grad school, Max tells Grover that he needs to be like the mothers dropping their kindergartners at school for the first day and just walk away-and they do.
Grover, the aspiring writer, is left behind by his girlfriend who goes to grad school in Prague. After being hit by this news, Grover returns to his group of friends who are playing their trivial trivia game. The way the game works is someone asks a question like, "Name seven movies where monkeys play a key role," and to answer you have to "ding" in.
One question was, "Name the top five worst things to happen to you after graduation." Grover "dings" in and answers, "Spending the rest of my life with you guys."Your group of friends may not actually "ding" in for your game, but know you have some sort of a trivia game that looks ridiculous to others.
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