The Squid and the Whale (2005)
Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.
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If you don't think this is one of the greatest movies ever... you know what you are!
The Squid And The Whale It is so fabricated that it has to be realistic and when one achieves that fine line on the horizon and manages to perfectly balance it until the curtain drops there is a cathartic release among viewers which is quite rare to find. Noah Baumbach's writing is way too strong and has enormous potential to be independent of any barring or restrains and floats peculiarly where one cannot move away ones concentration from it. His execution skills are admirable too but might have to work on it a bit more to even match with its astoundingly poetic script. Jeff Daniels has got it covered on "performance" department where Laura Linney and Jesse Eisenberg are supporting him throughout the course of it. The Squid And The Whale is not your typical dysfunctional family genre feature for the places it visits and the range it contains, is something one can't even possibly imagine.
All he (the screenwriter) has done was hiding some secret meanings to a number of entities for the viewers to solve. Sure, it's fun working on a puzzle as long as it's "interesting". People give away awards for it because I understand the world is full of crappy writers. In other words, the screenwriter for this movie got "lucky". Now let's focus on the big picture. As far as the artistic flavor is concerned, this movie is below average. Music is crappy. Lighting is crappy. No emphasis on anything. Horrible crap. Indescribable. Good enough for America's Funniest Video. And it's not even 90 minutes long. The writer failed to stretch the script.
There is quite a personal feel to this movie that captures a couple that is divorcing and how that affects their children. I enjoy the interesting rhythm to the dialogue in Noah Baumbach movies and this one was no exception. The family is portrayed as overly honest and perhaps inappropriate conversations with their children. Overall it's an interesting slice of life type of movie. There's a bit of a story as everyone adjusts to the divorce but it's really not about payoff. The running time is under 90 minutes so it's short and sweet and doesn't outstay its welcome.