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Submitted by cinemascope on Sat, 2006-04-15 10:55. :: Contemporary
Movie title:
The Squid and the Whale
Starring:
Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, William Baldwin
Directed by:
Noah Baumbach
Written by:
Noah Baumbach
Genre:
Comedy/Drama
Year:
2006
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Runtime:
81 minutes
Imdb:
Rating:
Synopsis
Joan and Bernard Berkman are married with two sons and live in Brooklyn in the 1980s. Bernard is a failed novelist turned creative writing tutor, and when his wife has her own work published, the couple acrimoniously split. 16 year-old Jesse naturally sides with his father and moves in with him across Prospect Park, while Frank, 12, stays with his mother.
Joan and Bernard Berkman are married with two sons and live in Brooklyn in the 1980s. Bernard is a failed novelist turned creative writing tutor, and when his wife has her own work published, the couple acrimoniously split. 16 year-old Jesse naturally sides with his father and moves in with him across Prospect Park, while Frank, 12, stays with his mother.
Review
Noah Baumbach is perhaps best known as Wes Anderson’s writing partner on The Life Aquatic, and Anderson produces this film, actually Baumbach’s fourth, but the first to have been released in cinemas in the UK. If you’re expecting Anderson’s trademark whimsy and stylised characterizations and photography though, you won’t find them here – this is a film resolutely set in the real world, painfully so at times, given that the storyline is apparently based on Baumbach’s own childhood experiences of his parents divorce. The perennially under-rated Daniels shines brightest among a host of fine performances: his Bernard is an intellectual snob and crushing bore, and Daniels wisely refuses to make him either sympathetic or emotionally accessible. The humour is jet black – in one scene Bernard takes up his teenage son’s invitation to go to the cinema with him and his girlfriend, then insists that they all go see Blue Velvet rather than Short Circuit, before brazenly not treating them to dinner afterwards. While the parents spat in private and in public, youngest son Frank develops a habit of covertly masturbating in public places, and Walt attempts to pass off a Pink Floyd song as his own at a school talent contest. A clever, funny, emotionally fascinating film, The Squid and the Whale is one of the year’s best films so far.
Noah Baumbach is perhaps best known as Wes Anderson’s writing partner on The Life Aquatic, and Anderson produces this film, actually Baumbach’s fourth, but the first to have been released in cinemas in the UK. If you’re expecting Anderson’s trademark whimsy and stylised characterizations and photography though, you won’t find them here – this is a film resolutely set in the real world, painfully so at times, given that the storyline is apparently based on Baumbach’s own childhood experiences of his parents divorce. The perennially under-rated Daniels shines brightest among a host of fine performances: his Bernard is an intellectual snob and crushing bore, and Daniels wisely refuses to make him either sympathetic or emotionally accessible. The humour is jet black – in one scene Bernard takes up his teenage son’s invitation to go to the cinema with him and his girlfriend, then insists that they all go see Blue Velvet rather than Short Circuit, before brazenly not treating them to dinner afterwards. While the parents spat in private and in public, youngest son Frank develops a habit of covertly masturbating in public places, and Walt attempts to pass off a Pink Floyd song as his own at a school talent contest. A clever, funny, emotionally fascinating film, The Squid and the Whale is one of the year’s best films so far.
