Brad's Status
Annapurna Pictures | Release Date: September 15, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
30
Mixed:
8
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonSep 20, 2017
When explored by writer-director Mike White’s expert, soulful script, Brad, against all odds, becomes a sympathetic figure, and the film itself achieves a sort of poetry. Read full review
100
Village VoiceBilge EbiriSep 16, 2017
Brad’s Status remains grounded in reality — it’s gentle, human and unresolved. I loved it, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to watch it again. Read full review
90
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 11, 2017
It’s a film with the courage to be unlikable and the confidence to be complex, trusting audiences to navigate Brad’s whirling, restless mental state as it swings from jealousy to pride to what Ananya (correctly) identifies as “white privilege, male privilege, first-class problems” — otherwise known as entitlement. Read full review
90
Screen DailyTim GriersonSep 11, 2017
Writer-director Mike White has crafted a painfully funny and surprisingly moving character piece, but what’s most remarkable is how he and his star empathize with Brad’s feelings of inferiority while, at the same time, pinpointing the arrogance, privilege and callousness that often factor into such soul-searching. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreSep 21, 2017
White finds ways for Stiller to surprise us, and the veteran actor manages to hide his cards in scene after scene, letting us keep up with him, but never ever allowing us to guess where his emotions will take him next, and what form they’ll take. Read full review
88
Washington PostAnn HornadaySep 21, 2017
Brad’s Status contains moments of delicate humor. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonSep 21, 2017
This is the rare mainstream film that addresses the complexities of real life. Brad’s Status may motivate you to question your own. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedSep 15, 2017
The surprising results are unlike anything I’ve seen lately, and the best surprise of all is a funny, inspired and career-enhancing star performance by Ben Stiller that left me touched, applauding and laughing out loud. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireSep 14, 2017
Brad’s Status might be the most Ben Stillerish movie Ben Stiller has ever made, and that’s actually a good thing. Read full review
85
TheWrapRobert AbeleSep 11, 2017
With movies experiencing a glaring dearth in quietly human, perceptively satirical comedy, the appearance of Brad’s Status is something of a breath of fresh air. Even if that atmosphere is the occasionally sour odor of regret, the sharply drawn, considerate nature of White’s approach allows us to enjoy the tang and sweetness simultaneously. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 11, 2017
Even as Brad’s Status doesn’t overextend its reach, Stiller gives the material a touching, soulful core. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJan 4, 2018
It is an introspective and downbeat film, but forceful and personal, with excruciating and all-too-real moments of mortification. And it can be weirdly moving, almost out of nowhere. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 21, 2017
What’s so terrific about Stiller’s performance is that we never question his genuine love for his son. He’s just got to work through his love for himself to get there. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 15, 2017
Brad walks around seething, and Stiller is a good seether. He has made a career of playing men with colossal chips on their shoulders. He has a zest for humiliation. Maybe he fits the role of Brad too well. He’s so convincing that he’s difficult to watch. So is the movie, though on balance it’s very fine. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangSep 14, 2017
Starting from a single key insight into human behavior — the natural compulsion to compare oneself to others — White has spun a funny, empathetic and surprisingly grounded comedy that itself defies obvious comparisons. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovSep 20, 2017
The problematic issue of “keeping up with the Joneses” has rarely played as delicately or as honestly as it does here. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallSep 28, 2017
Brad's Status is White's second admirable screenplay this year after Beatriz at Dinner, each rapier sharp about human conditions. This script brings out Stiller's best, meaning his characters' worst. Midlife crises this well-written and performed never grow old. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliSep 23, 2017
The movie may be marketed to art house audiences but it has something to say to (and about) us all. Read full review
75
Boston GlobePeter KeoughSep 20, 2017
In Brad’s Status, Stiller becomes the face of white male privilege — and its comeuppance. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Sep 14, 2017
Intentionally exasperating. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartSep 14, 2017
White excels at writing dislikable protagonists — topped by Laura Dern on the HBO series “Enlightened” — while giving his characters enough humanity not to be monsters, and the potential for change. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattSep 14, 2017
Some of Status’s cringe comedy feels forced or simply wasted on soft targets. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 14, 2017
Thanks to Stiller's prodigious gifts at blending comedy and drama, it's hard not to see ourselves in Brad's besieged humanity. That's the thing with Stiller and White – they make you laugh till it hurts. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineKenji FujishimaSep 11, 2017
The film is less contemptuous of Brad than compassionate: brutally honest about his faults, yet ultimately understanding of them. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottSep 14, 2017
Brad’s Status at its best is genuinely thought-provoking. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschSep 11, 2017
Brad's Status is good enough to make you wish it were even better: tighter, bolder, sharper. But it's a droll, affecting movie — and, in its exploration of a man's fantasies of success and fears of failure, his trudge through the weeds of pessimism toward optimism, a distinctly American one. Read full review
67
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerSep 14, 2017
While the ride is often entertaining and the performances mostly satisfying, it’s a frustrating experience, like watching the journal of the least self-aware person you’ve ever met come to vivid, whining life. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloSep 12, 2017
With Brad’s Status, Mike White (best known for writing School Of Rock and creating Enlightened) has chosen an alternate route: Make the movie you want to, but sheepishly apologize for its existence — not via interviews or post-screening Q&As, but within the context of the film itself. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshSep 21, 2017
When he finally learns to settle into the moment, to find contentment in the things he already experiences, it's a beautiful and quiet revelation, rendered with Mike White's singular sensitivity and gentle touch. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorSep 11, 2017
Of course, this is social satire and some bits are very funny...but the message is too obvious and the humour too gentle for the whole affair not to feel like so much white male whining. Read full review
60
Total FilmNeil SmithJan 20, 2018
We’ve seen Stiller do ‘exasperated malcontent’ before, but this remains a perceptive portrait of fortysomething angst. Read full review
60
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJan 4, 2018
The film passes the time with breezy good cheer and the odd well-wrangled cringe, but fades from memory in much the same way. There’s just nothing about this guy that gives you cause to remember him. Read full review
60
EmpireNick de SemlyenJan 4, 2018
A droll and vigorous psychological study of an everyday egomaniac, but we’ve seen Stiller do this sort of thing before, and better. Read full review
60
The GuardianBenjamin LeeSep 11, 2017
Brad’s Status is a frustrating concoction. There’s a script full of insight but also inanity and while the performances might jump out, the direction falls flat. Stiller is back on the right route but, like Brad, he could afford to take a more daring detour every now and then. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperSep 21, 2017
Stiller is very good at playing this kind of character. The issue is whether we’re tired of him playing this kind of character. Read full review
50
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonSep 20, 2017
For a movie that presents itself as formally inventive, developments in Brad’s Status are a little too easy to guess. Read full review
42
The Film StageJared MobarakSep 11, 2017
The film becomes so self-aware that it’s tough to discern whether we should take what’s happening seriously or not. Read full review
40
ScreenCrushMatt SingerSep 11, 2017
With little drama or humor, it mostly amounts to watching a guy complain about his fairly decent life for 100 minutes. Read full review
32
Paste MagazineJacob OllerSep 16, 2017
Every creative problem White gives himself receives the most boring, trite solution, each chance for artistry stifled by mediocrity. Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthSep 11, 2017
Brad’s Status rarely affords its titular character an opportunity to have a real conversation with anyone else his own age, so the movie becomes a monologue from someone you quickly realize you don’t really want to get to know anyway. Read full review
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