Friday, June 08, 2007

The Squid and the Whale (2005)


Growing up is hard enough but when your parents decide to separate it can make things even worse. The Berkmans seem like a pretty normal 80s Brooklyn family at first but the closer you look the more complicated (ie f'd up) things get. Jeff Daniels is the fillet of the acting world as Benard, the college English professor. Coming from a divorced household I can only assume that writer/director, Noah Baumbach, is writing from personal experience. Despite how twisted the story gets I really connected with this film and think it is an independent classic.

4 stars out of 5

5 comments:

  1. Alright Brian!!!!

    Aanother fantastic choice.... you have no idea how much Nick and I love this movie. Everything in this is so painfully perfect.

    I hope we're not a bunch of "philistines" on this site. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't have an extensive DVD collection like my brother and co-contributer here on AB, but of the movies I own this is one of them. Reminiscent of Wes Anderson's movies (it is produced by him) but a little less upsurd and a little more realistic. Plus Daniels is outstanding! And yes we are philistines (esp. you Zack! But thats ok :) ) Or maybe I'm not, would a philistine use a colon-parenthasis smiling face in any of his writing? I don't think so.

    ReplyDelete
  3. nick,

    but "philistines" are the ones who don't like interesting movies... that's not us.

    ReplyDelete
  4. your right... I got it mixed up, backwards... my fault!

    ReplyDelete