Kicking and Screaming (1995 film)

Cast

Reception

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."