Kicking and Screaming [Special Edition] [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Inspired by the advent of Seattle's grunge music sound and popular films such as Slacker (1991) and Singles (1992), the Generation X comedy-drama was born. Typified by characters in their early twenties sharing an abundance of education, a lack of career direction, stunted romantic aspirations and an obsession with popular culture, one of the better examples of the genre was Kicking and Screaming. Josh Hamilton stars as Grover, a recent college graduate and aspiring writer depressed over the departure of his girlfriend Jane (Olivia d'Abo) for a fellowship in Prague. Josh's best friends are in a similar predicament. Skippy (Jason Wiles) is a classic slacker couch potato still attending classes despite having graduated, while the philosophical Max (Chris Eigeman) and Otis (Carlos Jacott), a mechanical engineer, both remain unemployed. Tenth-year student Chet (Eric Stoltz), who works at a local bar and has still not finished his education, serves as a cautionary tale for the four unmotivated pals. Kicking and Screaming was the debut of writer and director Noah Baumbach and the first of several cinematic collaborations between him and actors Eigeman and Stoltz. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by writer-director Noah Baumbach
  • New Dolby Digital 5.1 audio remix
  • New video interview with Baumbach
  • New video interview with Baumbach
  • New video conversations featuring Baumbach and cast members Chris Eigeman, Josh Hamilton, and Carlos Jacott
  • Rare deleted scenes
  • Conrad and Butler in "Conrad and Butler Take a Vacation," a short film from 2000, directed by Baumbach and starring Kicking and Screaming cast members Carlos Jacott and John Lehr
  • Brief 1995 interviews with Baumbach and the cast, orginally broadcast on IFC
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Plus: a new essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Josh Hamilton - Grover
       Olivia D'Abo - Jane
       Carlos Jacott - Otis
       Christopher Eigeman - Max
       Eric Stoltz - Chet
       Parker Posey - Miami
       Jason Wiles - Skippy
       Elliott Gould - Grover's Dad
       Cara Buono - Kate

• Director:

  Noah Baumbach

• Producer:

  Mark Amin, Sandy Gallin, Joel Castleberg

• Screenwriter:

  Noah Baumbach

• Cinematographer:

  Steven Bernstein

• Composer (Music Score):

  Phil Marshall

• Editor:

  J. Kathleen Gibson

• Production Designer:

  Dan Whifler

• Co-producer:

  Phillip B. Goldfine, Andrew Hersh

• Associate Producer:

  Jason Blum, Jeremy Kramer

• Executive Producer:

  Carol Baum

• Costume Designer:

  Mary Jane Fort

• First Assistant Director:

  Michael J. Allowitz

• Casting:

  Ellie Kanner

• Short Story Author:

  Oliver Berkman

REVIEW:

• Anyone who has ever gone through four years of college, then wished it would last for at least four more, will find themselves nodding along with Noah Baumbach's highly perceptive Kicking and Screaming. The title gets at four friends' extreme reluctance to move into adulthood, but the film is a lot less zany than the title suggests -- and thankfully, there are very few of the obnoxious stereotypes viewers have come to expect from films dealing with college social life. Instead, it's more of an intellectual cataloguing of these characters' recent experiences, which inescapably dominate their thoughts, since they still live in the town where they just attended college, still mopily haunting the bar where they made so many of the memories from which they must now divorce themselves, just because they've collected that diploma. Perhaps due to the presence of the singular Christopher Eigeman, frequent denizen of the films of Whit Stillman, Kicking and Screaming feels a bit like an homage to that director's work, if a little less maturely scripted. Each character has funny issues to resolve, and there are good performances to that end by Eric Stoltz, Parker Posey, Carlos Jacott, and Jason Wiles. But the backbone of the film is the wistful romance, recalled in flashbacks that appear in reverse chronological order, between Josh Hamilton and Olivia D'Abo. That she chose to go to Prague, forsaking a relationship with Hamilton's Grover, is already known at the outset. This makes their innocent first meeting -- seen only toward the end, with D'Abo decked out preciously in post-adolescent braces -- all the more poignant. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi