Film

Kicking and Screaming

Name: Kicking and Screaming
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 1995
Cast: Josh Hamilton, Olivia D'Abo, Chris Eigeman, Parker Posey, Jason Wiles

Coming-of-age

A debut feature about post-college paralysis: four friends rent a house near campus, drift through their twenties, and wrestle with commitment while afraid of becoming the guy who never left. Funny, tender, restless—for anyone who's felt stuck between adolescence and adulthood, or watched friends disappear into possibility while you stayed put.

TMDb rating

3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy talky, wry comedies about friends who keep postponing adulthood, where the humor comes from small self-deceptions and tangled conversations rather than plot.

Skip it if you need things to happen, since the film is mostly people circling decisions and talking themselves out of them, and that stasis can feel like treading water.

What it asks of you: Ninety-six minutes of unhurried, talky scenes where little happens on purpose, so settle in for conversation rather than plot.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Reality Bites1994

Another sharp-eyed look at twentysomething uncertainty, with a love triangle and genuine philosophical confusion. Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke navigate similar terrain—ambition, romance, the fear of selling out or settling down.

But The '90s indie earnestness can feel dated. Some of the dialogue tips into preachiness about Generation X's collective identity crisis.

Before Sunrise1995

Released the same year, it captures a similar sense of two people on the cusp of decision. Linklater and Hawke at their best—mostly talk, occasionally profound, sexy in how it values conversation over action.

But If you need plot propulsion or physical stakes, you'll be bored. It's ninety minutes of walking around Vienna talking to one woman.

Diner1982

Barry Levinson's hangout movie about six friends in 1959 Baltimore, stuck in the space between their past and their futures. Warm, funny, shot through with genuine affection for its characters' small uncertainties.

But Predates MTV by decades, so the pacing is glacial by modern standards. And there's an undercurrent of masculine anxiety that hasn't aged perfectly.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Kicking and Screaming

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Withnail & I1987

Both are about friends using proximity as an excuse to avoid growing up. Both find tragedy in recognizing that your twenties can simply *end* without you launching into anything at all.

Two unemployed actors stuck in London, slowly realizing they'll never get where they want to go. It's funnier and darker than Kicking and Screaming, but the DNA is the same: men pretending drift is a choice. A cult classic that deepens on repeat.

But British, heavily stylized, occasionally drunk and incoherent. Bleak in a way that can read as mean-spirited. Requires patience with purposeless plotting.

High Fidelity2000

Another film about a guy who can't move on, can't commit, can't escape his own head. John Cusack's record-store owner is a cousin to Grover—self-aware enough to diagnose his own problem but stuck anyway.

But The breakup narrative overshadows the bigger theme of stagnation. And Jack Black's supporting turn is so energetic it pulls focus.

Bad Boys1995

Shot between dreamy and mundane, this is about desire and possibility among the young. Similar tone—contemplative, sensual, unrushed. A film that sits with its characters' confusion rather than resolving it.

But Quietly strange in ways that can feel opaque. No conventional arc, and the sexual content is intimate in a way some viewers find uncomfortable rather than erotic.

Clerks1994

Kevin Smith's debut has the same DIY energy and similar preoccupations: young men stuck in place, talking philosophy in the space between one moment and the next. Rough and explicit where Kicking and Screaming is bittersweet.

But The dialogue is exhausting if you're not on its wavelength. Very male, very '90s stoner, very in-jokey. The romance subplot barely exists.

Stuck in Love2013

A later look at the same anxiety—this time about a family: the dad can't move past his marriage, the kids can't quite launch into life. Warm-hearted and occasionally very funny about emotional inertia across generations.

But More plot-driven than you might want, and the solutions feel a bit neat. Relies heavily on charm, which works or doesn't depending on your tolerance for well-meaning sincerity.

C'mon, Let's Live a Little1967

Same structure, opposite tone. Where Kicking and Screaming is rueful about being stuck, this celebrates it as hedonistic fantasy. Watching them together reveals how much the '90s film is *about* anxiety rather than celebrating youth.

A beach-party musical built on the same skeleton: recent graduates renting a house, trying to avoid responsibility, using romance and friendship as distraction. Technicolor and period camp, but underneath it's the same story of beautiful paralysis.

But A 1960s studio film with all that entails: dated sexual politics, saccharine music, a plot that exists mainly as scaffolding for songs. Requires affection for that specific era's aesthetic.

Beau Travail2000

Both films are about men who cannot disentangle friendship from stasis, and cannot tell the difference between loyalty and trap. But where Kicking and Screaming sees this as a comedic-tragic contemporary problem, Beau Travail mythologizes it—makes it almost operatic. The connection is structural and thematic, not tonal.

A French Foreign Legion film that rewires all the material about male friendship, duty, and the inability to move forward into something hypnotic and balletic. Not a comedy—it's formal, sensual, and devastatingly sad about men who cannot escape their own structure.

But Very little plot. Long scenes of men exercising. In French, subtitled. The ending is abstract and will confuse you. Requires patience with experimental form.