Such a frustrating disappointment

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie revolves around a 50 year old guys struggle with comparing his life to his old circle of friends from college who have somehow managed to strike it rich by age 50. Of five supposedly close friends, four of them are multimillionaires with enviable lives. Brad, however feels he is not successful enough because he does not earn a seven figure income. The movie has some touching moments and tries to make you realize that being grateful for what you do have is the key to being happy/content or "satisfied" with your own life. I found the movie mildly entertaining but also a bit ludicrous in that all 4 of Brad's close friends became obscenely rich before age 50. If you can look past that, the film is watchable.

*** Possible Spoilers*** I saw the trailer to this movie and believed it was a low-boil odd-couple road comedy or at least a social commentary on the coming-of-age of both a dad and his teenage son; the dad, as he reaches what he calls a "plateau" in his life, and the son, as he reaches the college phase of his existence. What I eventually witnessed was a sad, tragic rumination on the life's expectations of a wimpy man-child whose imagined tribulations were as bogus as the fake "Boston/Cambridge" background scenery that came from Montreal.There were no genuinely funny moments at all, and the cringe worthy narration by our somber dad drove me away from time to time to see what was up in the kitchen.Even the scenes of discovery between dad and his famous friends failed to capture my imagination; they only clouded an already murky story with needless and dead-end exposition. And, oh, goof alert! Nobody would walk from Copley Square to Harvard Square if they had important interviews to attend.

Sometimes we're just feeling too good. Too content, too satisfied, too darn happy. If you find yourself in that place and have 90 minutes to kill, Brad's Status could be just what the psychologist ordered. From the opening scene you feel the wet blanket dropped on you and just when you think "OMG, I need a drink", Brad takes you to new depths. There's a fleeting moment when you think that maybe this thing will turn around and Brad will discover and appreciate the true joys of life. Oh yea of little faith. It's a fake out. The credits roll and Brad hopelessness is alive and well. If you're hankering for a truly dreadful experience, Brad's your guy.

"Brad's Status" is a new American 100-minute movie from 2018 and as I really enjoyed Mike White's "Year of the Dog" over a decade ago, I was somewhat curious about this one, even if inclusions as a writer on "The Emoji Movie" for example made me a bit worried. But it is a good film and close to a must-see for everybody who likes Ben Stiller as much as I do or really loves him. The Emmy winner is in almost every scene here and makes it work most of the time. There is really a lot in here about his character as he accompanies his son to a day at Harvard where the teenager is supposed to find out if this is really the place he wants to spend the next few ydears studying. But if course, it is much more about the father character. It is about his marriage, his son, his old friends and there is also a great deal of talk about wrong idols like for example about the protagonist's mentor or about a musician the son idolizes (a bit too much perhaps). I liked it overall. It was written smartly and includes some well thought through humor that never takes away from the emotional gravity. The film does not need Stiller's character to land in bed with the young student who initially adores him so much and we also don't need a solution if he will get into Harvard eventually. I liked that they do not only depict Harvard as bad 100% and the smaller college as 100% good, but it's all in between and shades are dominant. It's about making the decision that has the least disadvantages of course. I think that maybe men in their 40s or even 50s will connect with this movie the most. It's probably a better watch for males than females. Midlife crises are a crucial subject here. Some parts will resonate more with you, others less. But I do believe that, while everybody will have other segments that have the biggest impact on them, you will not feel nothing watching the film in its entirety. I do think it is a really good character study, not only for Stiller's character, but for several others too. For example I also liked the take on the complicated concept of idealism vs. disillusion.The film's best moments are definitely better than the worst moments are bad if we are talking about a scale here. And the film really does feel natural most of the time. Stiller carries it nicely and I would love to see some awards recognition for him. The rest of the cast are strong too like for example Michael Sheen who is quite a scene stealer. Yes not all the emotional and deep moments work out nicely,, but honestly still enough of them do, so it never feels particularly pretentious. Stiller also does really fine with the voice-overs I'd say. Maybe the son actor could have been slightly better, but he isn't bad either. There were 2 or 3 moments in terms of quotes and insight into the main character's life and life in general that were pretty striking and left quite an impact on me, like the moment he says he cannot love all the women in his life that he wants to love. But like I wrote earlier, I believe these moments that are the best for you will also differ from one person to the next. So yeah, I am afraid this is a movie that will probably go a bit more under the radar than it should, but I think it is very much worth seeing and delivers with pretty much all it attempts. I also liked how the final dinner scene üuts basically everything in perspective about the people who seem to lead a great life, but still we find out they have issues and these are far from minor. And we found out the same about Sheen's character earlier. So maybe the main character's life is not as bad as he thinks indeed, even if I would not say that comparing him to starving kids in Africa is too accurate really in the grand scheme of things. Here we have one of those films you don't necessarily need to see on the big screen, but you should see them at some point. I give it a thumbs-up.