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The Squid and the Whale
The creative force behind Margot at the Wedding really scored with his previous creation, a quirky and disturbing 2005 entry called The Squid and the Whale, an often-stomach-turning look at family dysfunction populated with some really despicable characters displaying really despicable behavior.
It's Brooklyn 1986 where we are introduced to Bernard and Joan Berkman, a college professor and writer and his wife, also a writer, who are the parents of moody high schooler Walt and the hypersensitive pre-teen Frank. We meet this family near the end of Bernard and Joan's marriage. They sit the boys down and quietly inform them that they are planning to separate but have worked out a schedule so that the boys will be able to spend time with both of their parents.
Of course, the scheduling becomes moot as in something rarely seen in stories like these, the boys take definitive sides. With the reveal of his mother's multiple affairs, Walt wants nothing to do with his mother and Frank really wants nothing do with his dad, with whom he feels he has nothing in common. As the boys eyes are opened to who their parents are and what a lie their marriage has been for years, they both begin acting out...Frank begins drinking and taking his discovery of masturbation to a disturbing level; Walt wants to perform a song in a talent show that someone else wrote and claim as his own and finds himself torn between the virginal Sophie and Lili a student of his dad's who actually moves in with him.
Noah Baumbach received an Oscar nomination for his blistering screenplay that takes no prisoners and leaves no one in this story undamaged. Baumbach's story is centered around a family with so many issues that they spend the majority of the running time trying to blame other people for. The shreds of Bernard and Joan's marriage come shining through in the opening scene in which they are playing tennis opposite each other with their sons as partners. Frank's lashing out regarding Philistines, what he considers people who have no appreciation of the arts, nor his disdain for athletes endear him to the viewer. Neither are we impressed when we moves into a run down house after leaving Joan and does nothing in terms of renovations or repairs.
Joan is no prize either...she never really offers any explanations to her sons regarding her cheating, though I'm not sure what she could say, but most of her likability quotient went out the window when she started sleeping with Frank's tennis coach. Despite all the intense unhappiness here, hope is offered as it becomes clear early on in the proceedings that Bernard has never really stopped loving Joan, giving the viewer glimmer of hope, but just the faintest glimmer.
As a director, Baumbach triumphs through the performances he pulls from his hand-picked cast...Jeff Daniels is explosive and intense as Bernard and Laura Linney's hot mess Joan never fails to engage us. Jesse Eisenberg, an actor who has shown a gift for playing unlikable characters, nails another one in the sometimes slimey Walt and Owen Kline (real life son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates) lights up the screen as Frank. I also loved William Baldwin as the skeevy tennis coach and Oscar winner Anna Paquin as the trampy Lili. Baumbach seems to have had a bigger budget here than he did for Margot at the Wedding as production values here are top-notch...the film is beautifully photographed and I loved the quirky music, which actually included a song from Schoolhouse Rock. It's a little disturbing, but Baumbach has created riveting screen entertainment here.
The creative force behind Margot at the Wedding really scored with his previous creation, a quirky and disturbing 2005 entry called The Squid and the Whale, an often-stomach-turning look at family dysfunction populated with some really despicable characters displaying really despicable behavior.
It's Brooklyn 1986 where we are introduced to Bernard and Joan Berkman, a college professor and writer and his wife, also a writer, who are the parents of moody high schooler Walt and the hypersensitive pre-teen Frank. We meet this family near the end of Bernard and Joan's marriage. They sit the boys down and quietly inform them that they are planning to separate but have worked out a schedule so that the boys will be able to spend time with both of their parents.
Of course, the scheduling becomes moot as in something rarely seen in stories like these, the boys take definitive sides. With the reveal of his mother's multiple affairs, Walt wants nothing to do with his mother and Frank really wants nothing do with his dad, with whom he feels he has nothing in common. As the boys eyes are opened to who their parents are and what a lie their marriage has been for years, they both begin acting out...Frank begins drinking and taking his discovery of masturbation to a disturbing level; Walt wants to perform a song in a talent show that someone else wrote and claim as his own and finds himself torn between the virginal Sophie and Lili a student of his dad's who actually moves in with him.
Noah Baumbach received an Oscar nomination for his blistering screenplay that takes no prisoners and leaves no one in this story undamaged. Baumbach's story is centered around a family with so many issues that they spend the majority of the running time trying to blame other people for. The shreds of Bernard and Joan's marriage come shining through in the opening scene in which they are playing tennis opposite each other with their sons as partners. Frank's lashing out regarding Philistines, what he considers people who have no appreciation of the arts, nor his disdain for athletes endear him to the viewer. Neither are we impressed when we moves into a run down house after leaving Joan and does nothing in terms of renovations or repairs.
Joan is no prize either...she never really offers any explanations to her sons regarding her cheating, though I'm not sure what she could say, but most of her likability quotient went out the window when she started sleeping with Frank's tennis coach. Despite all the intense unhappiness here, hope is offered as it becomes clear early on in the proceedings that Bernard has never really stopped loving Joan, giving the viewer glimmer of hope, but just the faintest glimmer.
As a director, Baumbach triumphs through the performances he pulls from his hand-picked cast...Jeff Daniels is explosive and intense as Bernard and Laura Linney's hot mess Joan never fails to engage us. Jesse Eisenberg, an actor who has shown a gift for playing unlikable characters, nails another one in the sometimes slimey Walt and Owen Kline (real life son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates) lights up the screen as Frank. I also loved William Baldwin as the skeevy tennis coach and Oscar winner Anna Paquin as the trampy Lili. Baumbach seems to have had a bigger budget here than he did for Margot at the Wedding as production values here are top-notch...the film is beautifully photographed and I loved the quirky music, which actually included a song from Schoolhouse Rock. It's a little disturbing, but Baumbach has created riveting screen entertainment here.