Review - Brad's Status

December 4, 2022

Brad’s Status – U.S., 2017

Mike White’s Brad’s Status is like the younger brother who, no matter how much he tries, simply can’t measure up to his smarter and more successful elder sibling. This is not necessarily a put-down, just a reflection of how difficult it is for modern movies to match the honesty and focus of predecessors like King Vidor’s The Crowd or Chaplin’s City Lights. These films were not afraid to leave their central characters ordinary, much to the chagrin of studio executives - and many critics - who felt that audiences preferred escapism and cheerful finales over reality. (Apparently, Vidor begrudgingly filmed a rosier, less realistic ending in which the lead characters were now wealthy). So, it’s not surprising that Brad’s Status takes a safer route than its predecessors. Its protagonist, Brad Sloan, is middle class rather than poor, his family has a nice house rather than the cramped quarters seen in earlier films, he’s happily married. Did I mention he has his own small business? In other words, Brad’s Status is not about a struggle against poverty and normalcy, but like those earlier films, it is about someone looking at his life and not exactly being content with what he sees.
 
Brad is played by Ben Stiller, one of the few actors to truly embrace the passage of time and to explore the struggles that people can have with aging. In the film, his character is 47, meaning he was born in the mid-1970s and had the advantage of graduating from college just as globalization, the internet, and deregulation were proliferating. In flashbacks, we see Brad with his college buddies, all of whom we learn have gone on to become either famous, rich, or both. And then there’s the glamour of the lives they lead – the mansions, the stunningly beautiful women that surround them, the private jets, the ability to say don’t worry about the cost and mean it. It’s no wonder he asks himself where he went wrong. I suspect most of us have asked such questions at one time or another.
 
Brad’s mid-life crisis coincides with one of those rituals that comes with having a child who is approaching graduation - the road trip (here, it’s by air) to potential universities. I took one of these myself, and as the movie progressed, I was suddenly struck by the fact that my trip was really one of the last times my father and I spent a significant amount of time together. Sure, there have been holidays and family gatherings since then, but college is often the start of one’s adult life, and family time is inevitably one of the casualties of entering this stage of life, especially if one later settles down in another city or – in my case – country. And so, as I watched it, I became aware that what I was seeing was not just a father questioning his place in life, but also one of the last chances he will have to strengthen his bond with his son (well-played by Austin Abrams). Looking back, it is an opportunity I did not take full advantage of.
 
Brad’s Status resonates in a number of ways. For many of us, his quest for status will reverberate at a time when, thanks to social media, one can easily find oneself comparing lives with friends, former co-workers, and peers with relative ease - and being disappointed at the results. Especially when one of them posts photos of dinner at a five-star restaurant the same night that you’ve eaten fast food. (My experience, not Brad’s.) Yet there’s more to Brad’s sudden discontent. I suspect that much of it stems from his distance from his college friends – both physical and emotional. He is the odd-man-out, the guy making five figures when everyone else has at least seven. In truth, how many friendships survive such differences? To them, Brad’s become the kind of person you inquire about at a party, but never actually call to check in on – despite having their phone number or Facebook page. Is it any wonder that there’s a tinge of anger mixed in with his envy?
 
And then there’s Brad’s struggle to find the right words with his son. Just what do you do when your son tells you he wants to go to an Ivy League school and the first thing that pops into your head is How am I going to afford that? How is a son to react when, despite your best intentions, what comes out of your mouth sounds astonishingly like discouragement at a time when you mean to be at your most positive? What Brad desperately needs is a chance to play hero, and here, fortune smiles on him (while frowning on his son). When his son misses the day of his interview with Yale, Dad springs into action because, as luck would have it, one of his estranged college buddies just happens to lecture there on occasion. The look on Stiller’s face is perfect.
 
Were Brad’s Status content with simply showing Brad’s last opportunity to be a hero in his son’s eyes and the power of such an experience to reaffirm his status in life, I can well imagine Brad’s Status being one of the great films of the decade. However, it errs when it seeks to elevate Brad at the expense of his former friends. In Brad’s Status, friends cannot simply drift apart or be pulled apart by success. No, wealth and accomplishment have to be shown to be the moral ruin of those that achieve them, making Brad the sole attainer of that elusive thing called happiness. Is the message here that Brad should be glad he didn’t make it? If so, it’s a hard sell. It would have been better – and truer to real life – if Brad’s estrangement from his former friends were just one of those unfortunate things that happens as people age. We don’t always make it, but we shouldn’t need others to fail to be able to find contentment.
 
Despite this, Brad’s Status resonates in a way that few films do nowadays. Brad seems real, and his thoughts and worries are easily recognizable – or at least they will be one day. Most of us struggle from time to time with who we are and who we might have become had we played our cards just a little differently. I have no doubt that one day I too will experience these thoughts as I explore college campuses with my own daughter. How will I pay for this? Why didn’t I amount to more? What happened to my idealism? And I’m pretty sure that, like Brad, at some point my daughter will look at me with a look that will make it all worth it. I can’t wait. (on DVD and Blu-ray)
 
3 and a half stars
 
*I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how impressive Ben Stiller is in this role. It makes me wish he’d done more dramas throughout his career.