[Update: My podcast episode about Baumbach’s Kicking & Screaming, featuring journalist and critic Michael Weinreb, is now online.]
Noah Baumbach, whose new movie Marriage Story (starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver) debuts this week, is one of the most respected American indie-film writer-directors of his generation. His cinematic vision has evoked comparisons to auteurs like Woody Allen, to his sometime-collaborator Wes Anderson, and to his muse and life-partner Greta Gerwig. His 2005 movie The Squid and the Whale was nominated for an Oscar, and more recent films like Frances Ha (2013) and While We’re Young (2015) have garnered critical acclaim.
In the early 2000s, however, Baumbach was seen by some as a kind of lapsed wunderkind. His 1995 debut film, Kicking and Screaming, had been widely praised, but his 1997 follow-up Mr. Jealousy didn’t gain the same critical traction, and, later that year, he was so frustrated by the premature DVD release of his half-baked comedy-experiment Highball that he had his name changed to “Ernie Fusco” in the credits. By 2003 he was deeply involved in co-writing Anderson’s quirky The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, but he hadn’t directed any new movies of his own for more than half a decade.
All these years later, it’s easy to forget how obtuse the world of cinema could feel in those days before YouTube, social media, and the saturation of online film-buzz and fan-communities. Kicking and Screaming, Baumbach’s comedy about four young men who graduate from college and refuse to move on with their lives, had a rabid underground cult following (one that included yours truly) but, in the late-dialup era of the Internet, fan communities had difficultly locating fellow die-hards and comparing notes.
The curious case of NoahBaumbach.com
For Kicking and Screaming aficionados this all began to change in the spring of 2000, when a website called NoahBaumbach.com made its debut. The site featured discussion boards, streaming RealVideo clips of Baumbach’s films, and, eventually, a petition that aimed at convincing Trimark Pictures to release a DVD version of Kicking and Screaming. The website was not affiliated in any way with Noah Baumbach; it was, apparently, designed by a no-nonsense web-designer named Julia Mitchell. “I am not Noah Baumbach,” Julia noted at the bottom of the NoahBaumbach.com main page. “Everything here unofficial and unconnected in every way — this domain name will return to NB upon request.”
Julia was, apparently, from Michigan (I have been unsuccessful in tracking her down for retrospective comment), and there was an unpretentious, matter-of-fact Midwestern charm to the whole enterprise. Eventually – through some fortuitous process that was never clearly explained – Julia talked Noah Baumbach himself into hosting an online Q&A forum at the website. “Taboo subjects include Noah’s personal life and asking Noah for a job,” Julia noted. “Seriously, please don’t ask Noah for a job here. He’s a nice person and asking him for a job puts him in a bad spot.”
Noah’s interactions with the Noah-fan message-board
Baumbach’s relationship with the website lasted for more than two years, and he answered hundreds of fan questions in the forum, including several of my own. (I was based in Thailand at the time, working on my first book, Vagabonding; I asked Noah about his note-taking habits and his interest in travel; I also jokingly suggested he write a Kicking and Screaming sequel that self-consciously plagiarized the plot of American Pie 2.) Baumbach’s answers tended to be short and factual, though they often veered into sardonic, monosyllabic grumpiness.
At times Noah’s fans would ask meta questions about what he thought of answering questions for the message board. “I was wondering how the idea to do this came about,” wrote ‘Chris in Indiana’, “and what your thoughts on the experience are so far.” Noah replied: “I’m still figuring out what I think about it.” Another time, when a fan asked him how he went about reading and answering the web-forum questions, Noah wrote: “They’re downloaded by an intern (unpaid) who then takes a subway (with a change I’m told) to my apartment, parks himself on a stool at my bedside and reads them to me. I dictate the replies and he hustles back to wherever he lives (Queens?) and types them into some blog somewhere.”
NoahBaumbach.com disappeared in 2005, shortly before the release of The Squid and the Whale (perhaps at the request of, or under legal pressure from, Sony Pictures), but one can still find snippets of the site and it discussion boards via Archive.org’s Wayback Machine. Below, in the interest of posterity — and arranged by category — are some of the most interesting Q&A exchanges I was able to dig up from the old site.
On the process and minutiae of Kicking & Screaming
PD White [3/18/04]: Was the movie Diner in any way an influence for Kicking & Screaming? I like both movies for similar reasons.
Baumbach: Yes, it was. I like both movies for similar reasons too.
Mitch in CO [03/16/04]: What campus did you film Kicking & Screaming on?
Baumbach: The movie was supposed to take place on the East Coast, but for budget reasons we shot in LA. The exteriors were Occidental College. I think Beverly Hills 90210 was also shot there.
Dave in Washington, DC [03/15/04]: Who was the big actor that pulled out of K&S, that led Trimark to demand you get Eric Stoltz? And which part was he going to play?
Baumbach: I never said “big” actor. Josh Charles was going to play Grover. I think Trimark was looking for an excuse to get out.
Trevor in Chicago [3/18/04]: What’s the inspiration for all the tweed in K&S?
Baumbach: Carlos used to wear a tweed jacket when we were at Vassar. I like how sport coats look. And I thought it made the characters look a bit like children in adult’s clothing. It irritates me when people refer to that dress as preppy. It’s not.
Eugene [3/18/04]: I was wondering if there’s a reason that, in Kicking & Screaming, so many of the characters have uncommon names, except for Kate and Jane. Is this a reflection of the fact that their characters are a little more plain or underdeveloped than the everyone else?
Baumbach: Maybe there’s something to that. Although Max is not such a strange name. Kate was named after someone who inspired that part.
Jill Talbot in Boulder [3/16/04]: I have always wondered what Penguin Classics book Chet is reading in the K& S bar scene where Jane thinks her name sounds strange and wonders why it is we eat cantaloupe.
Baumbach: If I remember correctly, he’s reading Brighton Rock by Graham Greene. I’m pretty sure about this.
Mark in St Albans [3/16/04]: Toward the end of the movie Grover is having a discussion at the Penguin with Chet where Chet says “I met a woman and we had this kid, but that its not for everybody.” Where did this come from?
Baumbach: I think Eric liked the idea of him having a kid and since Eric was doing me a favor by playing that part and ensuring we got financed, I wanted him to be happy. But for all you know he never stayed with that woman and has little to no relationship with that kid.
Damian in Mesa [6/14/04]: Tell us what you think is missing from your original vision of K&S as you look back a decade later. Personally, I consider it a contemporary classic.
Baumbach: I have very good feelings about the film and I’m proud of it. I’m also moved by people’s reactions to it on this site. Maybe when I’m forced to watch it in order to provide DVD commentary I’ll have a more fully formed opinion.
Elmo in New York [6/21/04]: If Lion’s Gate is not willing to release the Kicking and Screaming DVD anytime soon, would you be willing to record a commentary anyway? I would like to add it to a DVD version I have of the film, transferred from my laserdisc, and then find a way to get it to other fans on the internet.
Baumbach: Why don’t I call you every time you watch the film and give you a running commentary?
On his collaboration with Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic
Keith in Los Angeles [6/13/04]: What was the writing process like with Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic? Did you write separately and then combine your scenes? Did you plan the script out in advance together? Did you both sit in the same room and work on scenes together?
Baumbach: We met every day in an Italian restaurant in the Village at around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. (We both keep pretty late hours.) And we’d work through the rest of the day sometimes through dinner. We’d generally order a pasta with turkey sausage, cream and peas. At certain points we both got our cholesterol checked and changed our orders to “light cream.”
Kevin in Los Angeles [3/05/04]: Was it hard adjusting to the process of writing with someone else on The Life Aquatic after writing all your other scripts by yourself? Especially writing with someone who you admire as an artist? How was writing with someone else beneficial to the overall project, you think?
Baumbach: It was a blast to do and I love the script.
Michael in Lafayette [3/11/04]: I just read that Cate Blanchett has been cast as one of the leads in The Life Aquatic. I was wondering how you felt about this. Also, what are your thoughts on the other actors that have been cast (Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bud Court, etc)?
Baumbach: It’s a great cast. Who wouldn’t want that cast?
On his retrospective relationship with Vassar (his alma mater)
Jonathan in New York [6/11/04]: I’m a recent Vassar grad and am wondering if Kicking and Screaming was your experience the first year out of college.
Baumbach: Emotionally it was my experience.
Paige in San Francisco [3/13/04]: I graduated Vassar a year after you. When I was a student, I saw and really enjoyed a play of yours in Rockefeller Hall; I believe you played a character named Grover. Did you transform your Grover character from the play into the Grover of Kicking & Screaming?
Baumbach: That play was called Women and Thieves. Miami was a character in that too. I really just borrowed the names.
Alice in Brooklyn [3/13/04]: Where did you live on the Vassar campus? And how do you go about casting?
Baumbach: I lived in Josselyn and TA 27. I hire a casting director and hold auditions. Or in some cases I offer someone the part like Carlos or my father.
Jessica in Wappingers Falls [6/11/04]: As a fellow 1990’s Vassar alum, I just about fell on the floor when Elliot Gould told Grover he could have gotten into Brown had he studied more in math. That is the classic Vassar in-joke!
Baumbach:: Thank you.
Liza in New York [6/11/04]: I’m a 17-year-old student at a performing arts school in Manhattan. Right now I am strongly considering Vassar to continue my education. Can you give me your feelings about the school and your experience there?
Baumbach: I recommend Vassar. For details, I suggest you watch the film, Kicking & Screaming.
On his filmmaking process and influences in general
Tom in Brewster [3/11/04]: I was curious as to how many drafts you typically write for your screenplays, and how long it takes you to complete one.
Baumbach: It’s very hard to judge that. I’m rewriting all the time and I don’t count the print-outs. If I’m being paid to write something and have a deadline, I’ll work faster than if it’s just for me.
Benjamin in Austin [6/11/04]: How much do you buy into the idea that a script/movie should have an underlying “thesis” that is supported by the events, characters and ideas in the movie? Can you recommend a good book on writing?
Baumbach: I don’t subscribe to that idea. I haven’t read any books on writing so I can’t help you there. I was given a Syd Field book on screenwriting in high school — he’s got charts.
R.B. in Eugene [3/06/04]: Who are five directors that influenced you?
Baumbach: Eric Rohmer, Michael Powell, Jean Renoir, Max Ophuls, Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, Albert and David Maysles, Francois Truffaut, Jim Jarmusch, Alan Pakula, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Claude Chabrol, Carol Reed.
Ihab in Dana Point [3/16/04]: Who are some of your favorite directors right now? If you could choose a decade to take part in filmmaking which decade might that be?
Baumbach: The French New Wave in the 60’s. I like a lot of people, but here’s a few off the top of my head: Wes Anderson, Lars von Trier, Benoit Jacquot, Spike Jonze, David Cronenberg, Mike Leigh, Michael Winterbottom.
Sarah, 3/16/04: Have a favorite documentary?
Baumbach: I like Grey Gardens a lot. The Last Waltz and Stop Making Sense. I’d like to see more Frederick Wiseman films. I liked Spellbound.
Sean in Chapel Hill [8/07/03]: Are there any television programs that you enjoy watching?
Baumbach: I like Now With Bill Moyers. I like the British show The Office. And Primetime Glick.
Mitch in Boulder [3/13/04]: Thoughts on Star Wars? Favorite character?
Baumbach: Do you mean Star Wars the missile defense system? From what I’ve read it doesn’t seem particularly accurate.
Note: I don’t host a “comments” section, but I’m happy to hear your thoughts via my Contact page. To learn more about what this blog is all about, read items #2 and #3 from my update post.
Share This
