Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Movie Review: The Squid and the Whale

I rented the Squid and the Whale, movie written by Noah Baumbach (of the Life Aquatic fame) and based on his childhood experience of dealing with divorcing parents in the 1980s. If you like your entertainment cringe-inducing, then this movie is for you: it's filled with painfully awkward moments, like the elder son pretending he wrote Pink Floyd's Hey You and performing it at a school talent show. Jeff Daniels is perfectly wretched as the washed-up academic with a superiority complex, and Laura Linney plays his (understandably) unfaithful wife. I've heard some people think the movie is hilarious, but I found it sad and uncomfortable more than anything else.

3 comments:

brigita said...

Have you seen Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell soccer movie)? It's about a group of friends who can't quite get out of the college groove after graduation. It's in my top 20 if not ten—I highly recommend. :)

eileen said...

No, I've heard good things about it, but I haven't seen it. I'll put it on my To Watch list.

danimal said...

I saw it on the big screen and I really liked this movie. It's unorthodox and bold. The humor is off-beat and I found it to be unexpectedly raw and heartfelt. I thought the cast was phenomenal. Jeff Daniels charachter is so perfectly painful. And the kid drinking beer. Sublime.