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Reviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE
Rather than a coming-of-age tale for the boys, this is more of a coming
apart. Like his father, Walt has his own dellusions of grandeur,
appropriating a Pink Floyd song as his own work: "I felt I could have
written it, so the fact that it was already written was kind of a
technicality." And unlike most teenagers in 1986 (when the film is set), Walt
has a poster of Jean Eustache's The Mother and the Whore. The younger
brother, on the other hand, sides with his mother, letting her hide books under his bed from dad
(literature is the settlement's sticking point). With parental boundaries as
firm as Jell-O, Frank spews obscenities unchecked at his father and guzzles
beer while home alone.
Director Noah Baumbach's script has a lean fleetness that his debut feature,
Kicking and Screaming, lacked. His new film ventures into frank (pun
intended) sexual territory à la Todd Solondz, but without a whiff of
condescension towards its characters. No matter how cruelly they may behave,
their love for each other is never completely absent, which is why Walt's
anger towards his mother is particularly virulent (though in Bernard's
case, it takes a mini-emergency to bring his out.)
This is certainly Daniels' best role in years. His Bernard is the older,
angrier version of the thoughtless academic, Flap Horton, in Terms of
Endearment. He and the rest of the cast play their roles with uncommon
ease, especially Owen Kline as Frank, and Eisenberg proves his vulnerable
and understated performance in Roger Dodger was no fluke. Linney's
Joan is actually more deceptive than Bernard. Patient and clear-headed, she
can be just as selfish as her ex. One night, Bernard takes Walt and his date
to see Blue Velvet. Left alone again, Frank runs away to Joan, who
with her gentle voice and wan smile turns the boy away at her door, telling
him she needs some nights without him (besides, she has a date waiting for
her upstairs in bed). And laughing with glee, she relishes mocking Bernard in
front of their children. Even if the insufferable Bernard may be overwritten
- "[Elmore] Leonard is the filet of the crime genre" - the film always keeps its
wry sense of humor intact. Kent Turner
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Under the combustible glare of a magnifying glass, the battle lines within
the Berkman family are drawn in the opening scene. Both parents let there competitive sides out during a doubles tennis
match, with Bernard (Jeff
Daniels) exploiting his wife's weak backhand. Soon enough, he and Joan
(Laura Linney) announce they are separating - to no one's surprise but their
shocked children, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg), 16, and Frank (Owen Kline), 12. The parents agree to share custody on
alternate days, shuttling the boys between Joan's elegant Brooklyn Heights
brownstone and Bernard's fixer-upper. But even after the split, tension
between the parents remains high as blow-hard Bernard's writing career
stalls and Joan's debut novel wins acclaim (he refers to Kafka as "one of my predecessors").