The Squid And The Whale (2005)
Having watched Frances Ha, I came to the conclusion that Noah Baumbach must be a director to look out for. His big recommended movie prior to Frances Ha was the strangely titled Squid and the Whale. Frankly I think I may have missed the reason for the title.
This is very different from Frances Ha (which kind of felt like a movie version of Lena Dunham's Girls series). This actually feels somewhat akin to Wes Anderson's style. We have a whole group of flawed characters, particularly Jeff Daniels' father figure.
This film further solidifies my belief that Jesse Eisenberg's strengths lie on comedy. Here he plays quite a tragic figure whose father's advice is not only making him act like a horrible person, but is also alienating him from other people and making him unhappy. While there are clear ties between his upbringing and the way he acts towards others, it doesn't make him seem any less horrible and so it takes a very nuanced performance from Eisenberg for us to recognise him as a tragi-comic figure who is embarrassing himself rather than simply an obnoxious figure we'd like to run a mile from.
I must admit though, I'm very easily turned off by some of these comedies where you are supposed to be embarrassed for the protagonists. Comedies like Peep Show and The Office became impossible for me.
But while The Squid and the Whale had me squirming, it is so well put together that it somehow kept me on board. So yes, while the characters are incredibly frustrating, the humour is black, the story is pretty depressing and it's all nowhere near as much fun as Frances Ha, this is still a powerful and cleverly written account of a divorce.
Great performances, great script, kind of horrible though. But really this is just another version of the typical black comedy trainwrecks. You simply need to recognise that everything is going to go wrong for the characters and enjoy watching things fall apart. It's actually a testament to the writing and the performances that I could barely stand watching these characters' inevitable demises.
B+