I watched the Squid and the Whale last night, with a certain Chris Aberle, and we came to similar conclusions about it. If you like Wes Anderson's films, you'd love the tone and atmosphere of Squid. Jeff Daniels is amazing as a mostly washed-up writer/teacher with a head full of literary terms and himself. He's unabashedly amoral in both his life and his advice to his oldest son. And his gigantic beard is awesome.
Unfortunately, I can’t in good conscience recommend this movie to anyone for two reasons. There’s a ton of profanity, which doesn’t usually get to me. As Chris pointed out, it was either used completely flippantly and without reason, or to severely hurt.
The story is loosely based on writer/director Noah Baumbach’s childhood, and follows a couple’s separation and the entanglements that come with joint custody. You see each of the two son’s gravitate towards different parents and it becomes a dividing point between them. The younger tended to deal with his anxiety in, shall we say, oddly profane ways. And not much is left to the viewer’s imagination.
All in all, the movie had great characters (including William Baldwin as a greaseball tennis player), quirky and hilarious dialogue, and decent cinematography. None of that overwhelmed the obscenity for me. If you do decide to go and would like it to be as painless as possible, avert your eyes when the younger son is in the library. Don’t worry about missing pivotal plot points, you’ll be filled in later. And if you have a soul, disgusted.
1 comment:
Matt, this movie sucked. Big letdown. I agree that the obscenity was all too prominent. The few comical parts were difficult to enjoy, and the ending was a major buzzkill. It completely failed at suggesting anything greater than the bickering of a crumbling family.
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