From The New Yorker
Noah Baumbach's first movie focusses on the indecisive, enervated months that four college buddies spend together after graduation-clinging to old habits (crossword puzzles, trivia games), living near or on campus-before they go their separate ways. What finally makes them move on, and sets this film apart from other slacker comedies, is the women they're attracted to: risk-taking students who are more capable than their men of standing on their own. Baumbach doesn't write grand speeches; he lets details and repartee carry the movie's emotional weight, and when it finally dawns on his characters that, even in postgrad limbo, life has a way of pushing you along, there's nothing self-congratulatory about the discovery. The picture has a lovely, understated autobiographical lilt. The perfect ensemble cast includes Josh Hamilton, Olivia d'Abo, Parker Posey, and the reigning king of independent-film ennui, Eric Stoltz, as the seen-it-all barkeep. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006
The New Yorker
Product Description
Paralyzed with post-graduation ennui, a group of college friends remain on campus, patching together a community for themselves in order to deny the real-world futures awaiting them. Academy Awardnominated screenwriter Noah Baumbachs hilarious and touching directorial debut was one of the highlights of the American independent film scene of the nineties, speaking directly to a generation of adults-to-be unable to reconcile their hermetic education experience with workaday responsibility, and posing the eternal question, "Where do we go from here?" Stingingly funny and incisive, Baumbachs breakthrough features endlessly quotable dialogue delivered by a stellar ensemble cast.