Kicking and Screaming (1995 film)
| Kicking and Screaming | |
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| Directed by | Noah Baumbach |
| Produced by | Joel Castleberg |
| Written by | Noah Baumbach Oliver Berkman |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Will Baum Phil Marshall |
| Cinematography | Steven Bernstein |
| Edited by | J. Kathleen Gibson |
| Distributed by | Trimark Pictures Inc. |
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Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $718,490 |
Kicking and Screaming is a 1995 film by Noah Baumbach about a group of college graduates who refuse to move on with their lives, each in his own peculiar way. The film stars Josh Hamilton, Chris Eigeman, Carlos Jacott, and features Eric Stoltz, Olivia d'Abo and Parker Posey. Much of the film was shot at Occidental College.
Jason Blum, Baumbach's college roommate and who was producing a film for the first time, obtained financing after receiving a letter from family acquaintance Steve Martin endorsing the script. Blum attached the letter to copies of the script he sent around Hollywood. The film premiered in 1995 at the New York Film Festival to critical acclaim. Baumbach was chosen as one of Newsweek's "Ten New Faces of 1996". The film appeared in several "Top Ten" lists, and had a lengthy run playing on the Sundance Film Channel. The Criterion Collection DVD was released August 22, 2006 in the U.S.
The film received mostly positive reviews, and many critical assessments described it as remarkably competent for a directorial and writing debut, expecting that Baumbach would "graduate to better things." Roger Ebert praised the film's "good eye and a terrific ear; the dialogue by writer-director Noah Baumbach is not simply accurate ... but a distillation of reality - elevating aimless brainy small-talk into a statement." Reviews often mentioned the thin and meandering plot, but most noted this as a facet of the characters' life stage. Janet Maslin of The New York Times stated, "Kicking and Screaming occupies its postage-stamp size terrain with confident comic style." More negative reviews saw this same solipsism and aimlessness less charitably. According to Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times, for instance, "you begin to wonder why you're bothering to watch the aimless lives of these four unfold ... At 25 he may be too close to the material to achieve the detachment from which irony and meaning flow."
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