What is a horror story? Does it have to feature masked killers, ghostly visitations, monstrous carnage? Grossout contests? NeoGothic potboilers?
The nineties was the decade of independent film. There were the big trendsetters, and the inevitable imitators followed suit. There were a lot of Tarantino clones popping up, but I preferred the Woody Allen approach. Lots of dialogue, human emotion, cataclysmic domestic tragedy. I'm talking about directors like Hal Hartley, Edward Burns, Tom DiCillo, Greg Mottala.
Some of the films were good, some were not. One of the better ones is Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming.
I lost sight of Baumbach after that. I missed his collaborations with Greta Gerwig. The Squid and the Whale was an acclaimed 2005 movie, but something about the title threw me off.
I finally watched The Squid and the Whale, and it was not what I expected from the title. This is an emotionally bombastic drama about a cultivated family coming apart. Think Woody Allen's searing Husbands and Wives mixed with a Todd Solandz movie.
Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are an intellectual New York couple. He's a respected novelist, but can't seem to sell his latest book. His victories all lie in the past. She is on the move, with a New Yorker magazine piece and a first book sale to Knopf. The marriage is breaking. There's pain all around, but who pays the biggest price? Their two sons, of course.
Both parents are bitter, both behave very badly. I alternated between pity and contempt for each of them. He's pompous and contemptuous of philistines who have no appreciation for literature and great film. She's more earthy, but also has a mean selfish streak.
Jesse Eisenberg is the older teen son. He takes his father's side, and often mimics his father's pretentious attitudes. A nice girl likes him, but he has no idea how to say or do the right things. He is understandably resentful.
The younger son, played with excruciating credibility by Owen Kline, is taking the separation very badly. His parents are so obsessed with their own self pity they do not notice the boy, aged twelve or so, is drinking. Heavily. He has also discovered onanism, and he spreads the bounty of his experimentation in the school library and on another student's locker.
The Squid and the Whale's cringe factor is through the roof. I winced at the painfully uncomfortable dialogue. I felt vicarious embarrassment for every principle in the cast. I squirmed, I shuddered, but I also laughed. This isn't funny ha-ha like War of the Roses. This is almost too close to the real thing.
If The Squid and the Whale isn't horror, I don't know what is. It's terrifying to see how children are subjected to almost benign abuse. The couple love their kids, sure, but they inflict nearly irreparable damage to them in the name of that love. This sort of thing is all too common in educated, civilized society.
The scariest thing is how I could see aspects of myself in the Daniels character. Not that I am a respected literary writer by any stretch of the imagination, but I can relate all too well to his rage against philistines. I often have condescending attitudes to those who, by my standards, have inferior tastes. No one likes a pedant. It's something I need to remind myself from time to time.
I gave The Squid and the Whale a solid 10 in my movie-watching journal. It's savagely brilliant. Now I have a lot of Noah Baumbach movies to catch up to. It's great to discover a new favorite filmmaker. Especially one with such a large body of work. I suppose I will even have to eventually watch Barbie, which Baumbach co-wrote with his wife Greta Gerwig.
Written by Mark Sieber
The nineties was the decade of independent film. There were the big trendsetters, and the inevitable imitators followed suit. There were a lot of Tarantino clones popping up, but I preferred the Woody Allen approach. Lots of dialogue, human emotion, cataclysmic domestic tragedy. I'm talking about directors like Hal Hartley, Edward Burns, Tom DiCillo, Greg Mottala.
Some of the films were good, some were not. One of the better ones is Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming.
I lost sight of Baumbach after that. I missed his collaborations with Greta Gerwig. The Squid and the Whale was an acclaimed 2005 movie, but something about the title threw me off.
I finally watched The Squid and the Whale, and it was not what I expected from the title. This is an emotionally bombastic drama about a cultivated family coming apart. Think Woody Allen's searing Husbands and Wives mixed with a Todd Solandz movie.Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are an intellectual New York couple. He's a respected novelist, but can't seem to sell his latest book. His victories all lie in the past. She is on the move, with a New Yorker magazine piece and a first book sale to Knopf. The marriage is breaking. There's pain all around, but who pays the biggest price? Their two sons, of course.
Both parents are bitter, both behave very badly. I alternated between pity and contempt for each of them. He's pompous and contemptuous of philistines who have no appreciation for literature and great film. She's more earthy, but also has a mean selfish streak.
Jesse Eisenberg is the older teen son. He takes his father's side, and often mimics his father's pretentious attitudes. A nice girl likes him, but he has no idea how to say or do the right things. He is understandably resentful.
The younger son, played with excruciating credibility by Owen Kline, is taking the separation very badly. His parents are so obsessed with their own self pity they do not notice the boy, aged twelve or so, is drinking. Heavily. He has also discovered onanism, and he spreads the bounty of his experimentation in the school library and on another student's locker.
The Squid and the Whale's cringe factor is through the roof. I winced at the painfully uncomfortable dialogue. I felt vicarious embarrassment for every principle in the cast. I squirmed, I shuddered, but I also laughed. This isn't funny ha-ha like War of the Roses. This is almost too close to the real thing.
If The Squid and the Whale isn't horror, I don't know what is. It's terrifying to see how children are subjected to almost benign abuse. The couple love their kids, sure, but they inflict nearly irreparable damage to them in the name of that love. This sort of thing is all too common in educated, civilized society.
The scariest thing is how I could see aspects of myself in the Daniels character. Not that I am a respected literary writer by any stretch of the imagination, but I can relate all too well to his rage against philistines. I often have condescending attitudes to those who, by my standards, have inferior tastes. No one likes a pedant. It's something I need to remind myself from time to time.
I gave The Squid and the Whale a solid 10 in my movie-watching journal. It's savagely brilliant. Now I have a lot of Noah Baumbach movies to catch up to. It's great to discover a new favorite filmmaker. Especially one with such a large body of work. I suppose I will even have to eventually watch Barbie, which Baumbach co-wrote with his wife Greta Gerwig.
Written by Mark Sieber
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