The Squid and the Whale

Noah Baumbach’s swift and spare domestic tragicomedy makes its points, but not too many. It is less autobiographical venting than a precise dissection of familiar specimens. The sparing use of music is indicative, never to tug emotions but always pointed. I give it a plus for its portrayal of my old neighborhood of Park Slope. The parents of this disintegrating family are both writers, i.e. utterly self-absorbed. Jeff Daniels as the father is the more pathetic of the two; the film has the grace to feel sorry for him while it eviscerates his pretensions and inconsequentiality. Laura Linney as the mother is slightly more sympathetic, because she is Laura Linney, but is also a monster of obliviousness. The boys, 16-year-old Jesse Eisenberg and 12-year-old Owen Kline, emulate and act out the bad behavior of their parents. Everything is painfully true, woefully funny. As Philip Larkin tells us, “Your mum and dad, they fuck you up.” (2005, Images, n.) *8+* (MC-82, RT-95.)