The Squid and the Whale
Noah Baumbach was Wes Anderson's collaborator on Life Aquatic and is also working with him pon the 2006 The Amazing Mr. Fox. This time, Anderson returns the favor by producing this movie, directed by Baumbach.
Squid is a funny depiction of a dysfunctional family--funny because it is a particular kind of dysfunctional family: a writing professor dad and movie critic mother in Brooklyn in the 80's.
Like Wes Anderson's movies that create a distinctive, whole, specific world for his stories, Squid too succeeds in nailing the specifics. This extends from sets and clothes to casting and dialogue. All of it is very believeable.
The acting was fantastic, but it wasn't something I noticed until after I thought about it. The mom and dad and kids were too real for me to think of them as actors. No, this family was faling apart in the most disturbing way, and I was laughing at them: sometimes in disbelief, sometimes in horror. And sometimes in recognition.
3.5/4 stars.
saw at Lumiere with W. 11/27 730pm.