Review of The Squid and the Whale (2005) by Kaustav — 06 Apr 2018

I had considered watching this a Wes Anderson movie and boy was I wrong of my expectations. Anderson may have contributed to this film but it couldn't possibly be far off from his work.

I felt it was a mediocre which didn't have any closure or catharsis about Jeff Daniel's father figure being an overbearing presence on his older son's (Jesse Eisenberg) life while The mother played by Laura Linney is stranded between love, pain, adoration, failure and compromise. Perhaps it would need a art history class to get the explanation on who was the Squid and the Whale.

Persoanlly, I dislike movies like this one with its inexplicable titles and storyline which are similar to the elitist, pretentious language used by the main male protagonists in the first half of the film. This work by Noah Baumbach is all more disappointing to me because I know he eventually went onto make The Meyerowitz Stories with Netflix, which is perfection of the sort of family drama that perhaps should have been. But it is not my work and every one has their own ideas to present; unfortunately except for a few scenes with the female characters in the movie, there is not much really to miss out on. Stay away from it - or don't. Your ball, your game.