The Squid and the Whale
In his third feature, director Noah Baumbach scores a triumph with an autobiographical coming-of-age story about a teenager whose writer-parents are divorcing. The father (Jeff Daniels) and mother (Laura Linney) duke it out in half-civilized, half-savage fashion, while their two sons adapt in different ways, shifting allegiances between parents. The film is squirmy-funny and nakedly honest about the rationalizations and compensatory snobbisms of artistic failure as well as the conflicted desires of adolescents for sex and status. In detailing bohemian-bourgeois life in brownstone Brooklyn, Baumbach is spot on. Everyone proceeds from good intentions and acts rather badly, in spite or because of their manifest intelligence. Fulfilling the best traditions of the American independent film, this quirky, wisely written feature explores the gulf between sexes, generations, art and commerce, Brooklyn and Manhattan.
Member Reviews
One of My Favorites!! - farquh
This has to go down as one of the best written, best directed, and best cast films in American History! In another 10 years, when the AFI does another Top 100 List, expect to see this film on it!
Squid and the Whale seems to be a very personal story from writer/director Noah Baumbach. I imagine that this type of story about a dysfunctional family could only be told from a person who lived through a similar situation.
The story centers around a family of four. A mother, father, and their two teenaged boys. The parents are getting divorced, the new situations effect the boys in totally different ways.
To call this black comedy is an understatement. What you are seeing is real pain and real family fights. You can also feel just how the children will be effected by it all in the long term. All of this is apparent, yet you'll find inappropriately laughing!
While you are laughing, you understand and realize that there is nothing funny about what is being depicted on screen! Yes, you will understand that it is more sad than funny - and it is this very type of dynamic between what the director presents and how he expects the audience to interpret it is nothing short of a masterpiece!
This was my first time ever seeing Jesse Eisenberg in a movie. He owns the role, and as you are now aware has quickly turned himself into a Hollywood 'A' Lister. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney both embody the character they are playing -as they do in every role they play! They both are on top of their game with this one!Why? - Elle0Angel
This is a well-acted, nicely shot film about two horrid writer types living a 'meaningful' existence in New York who are more interested in their complex tangle of a relationship and their respective ego problems than in doing what their sons need. Linney and Bridges do their best with the material and the actors playing the sons are good, but I left this movie wondering why I'd bothered to watch it. Nothing really happens, nothing is resolved, and there's nothing particularly unique or interesting about the characters' dilemmas. The ending implies the elder son is stepping out of his father's shadow, but it's so restrained that when the credits roll, it feels more like the director ran out of film than that story has come to a logical conclusion.
This is the type of film that appeals to audiences who live (or want to live) the same artistic, self-indulgent urban life as the characters, but imagine themselves intelligent enough not to get caught in its pratfalls.An emotional divorce story - Filmgal
The Squid and the Whale is a fantastic little film- one of the best this year- and is well worth a rental as an intellectual, adult film.
The film follows a married couple of writers (Linney and Daniels) who make the difficult decision to get a divorce and share custody of their two sons (Kline and Eisenberg). The parents are pitted against eachother and the boys are forced to take sides while the fractured family learns to grow and move on with their new lives apart.
There is not much action in the film, but rather it unfolds as if you are looking in the window on a family for a particular moment in time as they try to gain understanding of their new situation. It is at once a comedy and a drama with moments that make you want to laugh at loud in order to keep yourself from crying.
Jeff Daniels gives and incredible performance, as does the rest of the cast, in particular Owen Kline as the youngest son. Great direction as well from Noah Baumbach.
Interesting trivia: Anna Paquin plays Jeff Daniels' student who tries to seduce him in the film. She previously played his daughter in the 1996 film Fly Away Home, which was an unsettling thought at first, but good casting.
Member Reviews
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One of My Favorites!! - farquh
This has to go down as one of the best written, best directed, and best cast films in American History! In another 10 years, when the AFI does another Top 100 List, expect to see this film on it!
Squid and the Whale seems to be a very personal story ...Why? - Elle0Angel
This is a well-acted, nicely shot film about two horrid writer types living a 'meaningful' existence in New York who are more interested in their complex tangle of a relationship and their respective ego problems than in doing what their sons need. Linney ...An emotional divorce story - Filmgal
The Squid and the Whale is a fantastic little film- one of the best this year- and is well worth a rental as an intellectual, adult film.
The film follows a married couple of writers (Linney and Daniels) who make the difficult decision to get a divorce ...