Parents' Guide to

Brad's Status

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 15+

Quirky dramedy has great acting, plus language, drinking.

Movie R 2017 101 minutes
Brad's Status Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 16+

Based on 1 parent review

age 16+

Brad's bummer

Slow, boring, depressing you expect it eventually will end on an upbeat but it didn't. A monotone movie and at the end doesn't tell you anything.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1):
Kids say (1):

Writer-director White specializes in over-analytical, self-loathing souls who have trouble dealing with their lives, and Stiller does a brilliant job playing the chronically unsatisfied Brad. It's hard to humanize someone unlikable, but Stiller manages the feat with a subtle performance that doesn't turn Brad into a complete sad sack. Most viewers will be able to relate to someone who feels a little bit of envy or even preoccupation with wondering whether they made the right choices, but Stiller's ability to reveal the depth of Brad's neuroses without turning him into a caricature is amazing. Brad's constant navel-gazing goes from amusing to eye-rolling to cringe-worthy, then back to amusing -- and so on.

Also impressive is the nuanced performance by Abrams, who plays Brad's son, Troy. Troy also has his share of stressors (what over-achieving high school senior isn't stressed?), but he isn't suffering from a "nervous meltdown" like his moody father. A talented young actor known for his work on The Walking Dead and Paper Towns, Abrams has a great scene in which Troy gives a wonderful little speech about his love for his father. There are also standout supporting performances from Sheen, who plays a breezily egotistical power broker, and Shazi Raja as an idealistic Harvard junior named Ananya. She, at 21, says exactly what most viewers are probably thinking about Brad -- that he's "just fine" and that he "has enough" but just can't see it because he's too fixated on what he doesn't possess.

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