Already having quite a summer with his writing duties on Beatriz at Dinner (not to mention a script credit on The Emoji Movie), Mike White is back with his first directorial feature in a decade with Brad’s Status. Starring Ben Stiller, it follows his character going through a mid-life crisis of sorts while also trying to help his son get into college.
Ahead of a release this September, the first trailer has now landed. Employing the mix of humorous drama that has defined White’s career, hopefully it’ll be an early fall highlight. Also starring Michael Sheen, Luke Wilson, Jemaine Clement, Jenna Fischer, and Austin Abrams, check out the trailer below.
Brad has a satisfying career and a comfortable life in suburban Sacramento where he lives with his sweet-natured wife, Melanie (Jenna Fischer), and their musical prodigy son, Troy (Austin Abrams), but it’s not quite what he imagined during his college glory days. Showing Troy around Boston, where Brad went to university, he can’t help comparing his life with those of his four best college friends: a Hollywood bigshot (Mike White), a hedge-fund founder (Luke Wilson), a tech entrepreneur (Jemaine Clement), and a political pundit and bestselling author (Michael Sheen). As he imagines their wealthy, glamorous lives, he wonders if cozy middle-class domesticity is the best he will ever achieve. But when circumstances force him to reconnect with his former friends, Brad begins to question whether he has really failed or if, in some essential ways, their lives are more flawed than they appear.
Brad’s Status opens on September 15, 2017.