Squid and the Whale

Pros: Characterizations, Performances
Cons: Wasted Laura Linney, a couple squicky scenes

Jeff Daniels isn’t one of those actors that can pull me in to a film with the sheer force of his presence. He’s fine, but he just doesn’t really do all that much for me. But when someone gets the grand idea to place him in a dysfunctional ...

Pros: Strong performances from Daniels, Linney, and cast; Baumbach's script and direction
Cons: Sometimes feels like a Wes Anderson work; some unsettling scenes

The children of the Berkman family have seen many a friend deal with the divorce of their parents. In The Squid And The Whale, Walt Berkman (Jesse Eisenberg) and his brother Frank (Owen Kline) experience those feelings firsthand in 1986 New York. ...

Pros: great performances, slicing dialogue
Cons: a bit lumpy and certainly "biased"

In common with some other films of which I'm posting reviews today, (2 046, and A sk the Dust) "The Squid and the Whale" (2005, written and directed by Noah Baumbach) also features the ...

Pros: witty, poignant, never maudlin
Cons: no gimmicks, micro-budget, low production values, with no political or commercial angle

For my money, The Squid and the Whale is the best movie I've seen in years. It's not high concept to shoot a film about a couple going through a divorce, and its effect on their kids - let alone to make it a yuppie couple with dueling Ph.D.'s. This ...

Pros: Remarkable performances, insightful script, vivid characterizations, a pretty unique setting
Cons: This film is pretty devastating and somewhat disturbing at times

Reading a synopsis of 2005's (in my opinion) best film, The Squid and the Whale, a potential viewer may be expecting the type of sappy and melodramatic teenage coming of age story that has become a staple of the modern cinema. True, the story ...

Pros: acting, humor, realism, characters
Cons: a couple of unrealistic details

Philistine: 1. A smug, ignorant, especially middle-class person who is regarded as being indifferent or antagonistic to artistic and cultural values. 2. One who lacks knowledge in a specific area. Bernard Berkman is the kind of man who ...

Pros: Characterization, story, humor, poignancy, Daniels, Linney, cinematography.
Cons: None

They fuck you up, your mum and dad. They may not mean to, but they do. They fill you with the faults they had And add some extra, just for you. So begins a celebrated poem by Philip Larkin, and it perfectly describes the tragicomic ...

Pros: Baumbach's Script/Direction, Soundtrack, Look, Locations, & Cast.
Cons: None.

Childhood and growing up is often a very difficult stage for anyone. When the subject of parents divorcing come up. For some, it's very painful in where children are forced to take sides and deal with the anger of not having a very stable family. That ...

Pros: Cast, script, realistic filming; brilliantly conceived and executed.
Cons: Undoubtedly, there are uncomfortable moments watching for Baubach's own parents.

The film, by Noah Baumbach, is said to be autobiographical. Baumbach gets Brooklyn in the 80’s just right. In Park Slope, where the tale is set, the parents of two boys chart a course for divorce and seem bound to their own needs; the needs to show ...

Pros: Cast, screenplay
Cons: Some of the material can get disturbing

The Squid and the Whale is much like The Royal Tenenbaums since it deals with a dysfunctional family, takes place in New York and seems to take it's cues from a lot of New Wave and punk rock music. That's because one of it's producers is Wes Anderson and ...

Pros: Powerful performances, strong dialouge, simplistic film making
Cons: No explosions if that's what you're into

The problem with real life is that, while it can make for excellent stories, it rarely ever can fit into a movie with a sound structure. This is why (nearly) every film based off a true story takes plenty of liberties to make it more like a movie, and as ...

Pros: The actors are talented and imaginative. They do the best they can with this script...
Cons: Insipid. Pretentious. Deceptive. Manipulative. Hollow. A waste of your time.

I'm going to be a bit of a traditionalist for a moment. In the 1700s, the first time that the novel emerged as a defined form of literature, it was the subject of intense political scrutiny as a possible tool of insurrection. The positive social value ...

Pros: well cast, great story filled with intriguing characters
Cons: depressing, not for everyone

Divorce is such an ugly word, and yet it’s a word that has crossed the path of nearly every person in the United States whether it be a parent’s divorce, a grandparent’s divorce, a “second family” divorce, or a divorce of your very own. I wouldn’t call ...

Pros: Excellent, nuanced performances assisting a well-written, sublime story.
Cons: None.

Parents screw kids up. Maybe a lot, maybe a little, and in every way imaginable, but it happens, just as surely as parents enrich and instruct their sons and daughters. Noah Baumbach's fictional memoir, "The Squid and The Whale," knows that, and treats ...

Pros: Good story, easy to relate to plot, good character development, Owen Kline's performance
Cons: Too short

I guess I will start with a little background on the movie. The main stars of the movie were Jeff Daniels (Bernard), Laura Linney (Joan), Jesse Eisenberg (Walt), Owen Kline (Frank, also son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates), Anna Paquin (Lili), and ...