At the Movies (Again)

"Brad's Status" is a journey story: A man needs to take his son for an admissions interview at Harvard.

This would seem easy enough, but the Harvard issue brings about a mid-life crisis. Why doesn't our man--Brad--have more money? When his in-laws die, what will they do with their cash? They wouldn't actually leave it to charity?

Brad's "Silver Points" card should offer some form of retail therapy, at the airport, but in fact Silver Points won't get you out of the long "pleb" line. Maybe an upgrade to business class would help--but the upgrade, per seat, is around 800 dollars. After Brad tortures himself, he decides to go ahead with the absurd purchase, and it's at this point that he discloses that the original ticket was bought on sale via Orbitz. The Delta rep says, "We can't upgrade an Orbitz ticket. There is literally no sum of money you could offer that would lead to an upgraded ticket."

Things get worse when Brad fields a call from an old friend, a loathsome tycoon who can't resist a humble-brag: "I sold the company and moved out here to Hawaii....Now I live with these two women...and we surf, and fuck, and surf, and fuck....It's all fluid. I thought I was retired, but I just fell into this sideline hobby, tequila-bar development, and let's just say I'm ready to branch out throughout the continental US....!!!!"

Brad feigns vicarious excitement, then studies a homeless musician on the corner: Chickens and children know the truth....Lose yourself in nature.....Be one with the soil.....

The writer, Mike White, has a gift for mining ambivalence. You can sense that he is laughing at his protagonist--but, at the same time--he also clearly has love for this insufferable guy. Maintaining a balance between total sympathy and total contempt: This is a fun trick to pull off, if you're writing a screenplay. I think White does this equally well in "Enlightened," and in "Beatriz at Dinner."

"Brad's Status" is up next, for my family, this weekend.

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