Brad’s Status (2017)

Elevator Pitch: Brad Sloan goes to Boston with his son Troy, who is a talented musician. Troy is to be interviewed with the possibility of getting into Harvard. Brad has a number of former friends from college, all of whom have become extremely successful. Jason is head of a hedge fund, Nick is a film director, Billy has sold a start-up and lounges on the beach  and Craig is a politico who is always on TV. Brad, who envies his friends, since he see’s himself as having not been successful, needs help to get Troy the right interviews so ends up calling them for Craig’s number to ask for help, which Craig gives. Brad and Craig meet for dinner, but don’t get on.

Content: There is no sex, although it is talked about a bit, and Billy is seen on the beach with a couple of scantily clad lovelies. There is a bit of drinking, and in Brad’s imagination he sees a child snorting cocaine. Troy has got the date of his interview wrong resulting in Brad spending a lot of time on the phone to his former friends. There are scenes of what the friends might be up to. On and off Brad expressed dissatisfaction with he career choice which was to run a “not for profit”. While drinking with a young female friend of Troy’s, she tells him he is fine, even though he suggests to her that the best route in life is to make a lot of money.

A View: This outing was well liked by the critics, although it made little money by Hollywood standards. Apparently the writer/director has had various successes, none of which I recognised. The film is billed as a comedy/drama, but I did not see any comedy. They say that drama is life with the boring bits left out, well in this case they left the boring bits in. It is an ALMOST DON’T SEE for me.

Additional Info:  Apparently Montreal stood in for Boston.