The Squid and the Whale

[meatwad]

this seems like it can be a good flick. Written and Directed by Noah Baumbach, produced by Wes Anderson, starring Bill Murray, Laura Linney and John Turterro.

I heard the script is floating around somewhere. Does anybody know where i can find it?

[Spike]

Yeah, it's definately going to be a great flick in the good old Wes-style.   &  
But I'm still wondering why Wes isn't involved in the Owen Brothers' directorial debut "The Wendell Baker Story".

[meatwad]

here is a link to the trailer

http://movies.aol.com/movie/main.adp?tab=trailers&mid=21100#

i'm sure a quicktime version will be out soon, but we'll have to take this for now

[Ultrahip]

who knows the song at the end of the trailer?

[meatwad]

who knows the song at the end of the trailer?

it's "the swimming song" by loudon wainwright III

and the second song in the trailer is "lets go" by the feelies

[pete]

bill murray's in this?

[noyes]

saw this yesterday at the lincoln plaza cinemas here in nyc. really really loved it. it had just enough strangeness and boldness and fucked-up divorceness for me to like it. and incredible music (three Bert Jansch songs!) great flick. definitely go out and watch it.

i can't wait for the dvd. i'm getting it either way but definitely getting it if Baumbach does a commentary, which, i think, is incredibly unlikely. i should be, despite it's personalness and all. but anyway. go watch it already assmen!

[Ghostboy]

I saw this today. It was too damn short! But it's really good, despite what seems to have been some heavy cutting. Jeff Daniels (who replaced Bill Murray at some point) gives a career-best performance - I would never have guessed it was him, had I not known it from the get-go.

[modage]

i also REALLY liked this movie.  it was a geniune surprise and i was glad to see it that way.  the movie was very funny and very painful.  a sort of truthful pain that feels like a punch in the gut and must come from a very real place.  baumbach says the movie isnt based on his life though many of the details are the same, but i dont believe him because i believed every word in this movie.  it was good, real good.  

the most interesting thing about it, to me, was that Wes Anderson basically had made a fantasized version of this movie in The Royal Tenenbaums.  he, coming from Texas dreaming of living the intellectual life in new york and eventually moving here. as well as always dealing with the Ahole father figure (though he has said his was not), whereas Baumbach actually lived this!  and beyond that there are many other similarities (albeit some superficial ones).  

- Jeff Daniels resembles in beard and dress Bill Murray from Royal T
- family of intellectuals/geniuses
- dad is an Ahole
- parents divorced
- brownstone new york house looks similar
- museum richie/margot escape to like exhibit with squid/whale
- tennis

probably about a dozen or more, though superficial, interesting ways the films overlap.  though i wouldnt accuse baumbach of attempting to rip-off or resemble anderson in any way, i DO think that people who think anderson concentrates too much on being stylized and think he stands at a distance to smirk at his characters would like this film for being all the things they want anderson to be.  funny and sad and very real.  so recommended highly to both fans and non-fans (GT, you might like this).  B+

[Ultrahip]

im seeing this sunday...i think (am hoping) noah baumbach will be in attendance. if he's not, someone else 'important' will be, but it better be baumbach.

[Gold Trumpet]

(GT, you might like this).  B+

Mod really is the best for guessing what I'll like. If it comes to my lowly city, i'm seeing it.

[JG]

I can't remember the last time I wanted to see a movie so bad.  This is RIGHT up my alley.

[Tictacbk]

I can't remember the last time I wanted to see a movie so bad.

Really? Because I think this movie will be quite good.



hahahaha....see what I did there? ADVERBS, USE THEM!

[killafilm]

Pretty much everything Mod said.

This movie is real good, and real fucked up.  Some of the stuff with Frank was squirm worthy, but then totally awesome because of the music (that was what I thought it was, right?).  Everyone in the cast is great.  Even William Baldwin, brother.  Halley Feiffer is now 2 for two with this and You Can Count on Me.

A- brother

[w/o horse]

What a self-indulgence fest.  I'd say Woody Allen-lite, but I want Woody's legacy to be this film like I want The Beatle's legacy to be Charles Manson.  It somehow made amoral seem black and white.  It was a high-brow Waiting....  That's too much of a compliment.  I don't think I've seen a film full of intellectuals this dull.  

baumbach says the movie isnt based on his life though many of the details are the same, but i dont believe him because i believed every word in this movie

That's because it was clearly conversations and kick-backs with friends slammed into a movie about the family.  Zach Braff should get the altruist of the year compared to this movie.  The History of Violence should get the subtle film of the year next to this.

Hyperbole and rhetoric aside, not too impressed.  I don't hate it as much as the above paragraphs would imply, but I figure I should compensate for the accolades it's receiving.  It would just have to be a different film for me to really bite into it, it would have to take some place else, and I would have to block out its obvious influences.

I'm fucking tired of these kind of movies.  Honestly.  Worn out, at least.

By the way, The Wild Child, Breathless, Blue Velvet, The Mother and the Whore, Psycho.  Scoo-bee-dee-doo-wop.