Review of The Squid and the Whale (2005) by Chads. — 13 Jan 2006

"The Squid and the Whale" has a structure that reminds me of "Almost Famous". The great Cameron Crowe film told two stories; how William Miller comes of age, and the death of rock and roll.

Noah Baumbach's debut also touches upon the dire straits that an artform is headed towards, while majestically, scathingly, tells the story of a family that's eviscerated by ego and O.P.P. [***Spoiler***]The key scene is when Bernard(Jeff Daniels) speaks condescendingly about a "popular" novelist he admits is good, but gives the backhanded compliment, for a genre writer.

In 1986, this author was well-thought of, but today, his status is one who is thought to be an all-time-great, although his work isn't "serious", like say the work of the late Saul Bellow(whose novel is used as a prop, I think, to serve as a popular/literary novel binary).

Bernard Berkman is a writer of well-received novels, but they're too dense, too inaccesible for the hoi polloi, and will soon be forgotten. It's a private joke among literature nuts when he dismisses the author of "The Hot Kid".

There is also a connection between the appearance of a certain ABC sitcom that ran from 1977 to 1984, and his inability to be published. If you read the backpage of Entertainment Weekly, the ideological war that Stephen King wages against literary fiction as being elitist, and how he champions writers who have no chance of being shortlisted for the National Book Award, will inform you what this movie is really about.

The divorce, the sperm, the Baldwin; that's all smoke and mirrors. The rivalry between the writing Berkmans made me want to re-read Tabitha King's "One on One", a novel every bit as good as some of her husband's work.