‘Brad’s Status’ is Ben Stiller at his truthful, midlife-crisis best

Midlife crises of white, affluent, whiny men have been a longtime staple of cinema, but “Brad’s Status,” in which Ben Stiller is a Sacramento nonprofit founder accompanying his high school son on an East Coast college-scouting trip while contemplating his fate in the universe, is a cut above. Yes, as one idealistic Harvard student points out, Brad Sloan’s problems are first world problems. But despite not being at the top of the world’s most pressing problems, don’t they still exist as problems? And 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. Brad is totally aware — as he points out in his nearly nonstop voice-over narration — that he is privileged, and feels guilty for whining. While he is successful, he and his wife (Jenna Fischer) will need financial help to send their son to Harvard, his school of choice. His nonprofit hasn’t made him rich, but it is honorable work, and yet he feels he’s been left behind. Each of his inner circle of college friends is amazingly successful. Craig Fisher (Michael Sheen) is a nationally famous political pundit and former White House staffer who is a ubiquitous presence on CNN, MSNBC and the New York Times best-seller list; Jason Hatfield (Luke Wilson) is a hedge-fund manager who owns a private jet; Nick Pascale (White) is a successful Hollywood filmmaker with a multimillion-dollar spread; and Billy Wearslter (Jemaine Clement) cashed in on a startup and retired at age 43 to a beach house in Hawaii populated with two bikini-clad, much-younger girlfriends. But the person whom he might be most envious of is his son, Troy (Austin Abrams). While Brad feels he has used up his potential, Troy has it all: youth and smarts, plus he’s a talented composer and musician. In short, a fellow with his whole life ahead of him. Played by Abrams as a low-key, no-drama child of the modern age, Troy’s cool is the opposite of Brad’s self-absorbed skittishness, and their relationship is what makes “Brad’s Status” a special movie. Father-son relationships are rarely explored in the cinema, at least in this way, and Stiller and Abrams are great together. Even the obligatory flirting with a younger woman — Ananya (Shazi Raja), the Harvard student who calls Brad’s narcissistic bluff — is given a new twist in that she is Troy’s old high school friend. When Brad advises her to go out and make money first, then turn to nonprofit work, she is appalled. He should get the clue: Ananya is one of many who would consider Brad more successful than his far richer and more famous classmates. If only he would realize it. Stiller turns in one of his best performances (and yes, I count “Zoolander” as one of them), and after “Greenberg” and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” he’s making a specialty of middle-aged whiners who feel they’re missing out. “Brad’s Status” is superior to those other films, and White — whose writing credits include “Chuck & Buck” (in which he starred) and “Nacho Libre” — has made his most mature and achingly truthful film yet.