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Critics Consensus: This is a piercingly honest, acidly witty look at divorce and its impact on a family.
Critic Consensus: This is a piercingly honest, acidly witty look at divorce and its impact on a family.
All Critics (148) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (137) | Rotten (11) | DVD (13)
A wry exercise in acute observation and emotional distancing, Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale represents what's best in autobiographical filmmaking.
The Squid and the Whale is essentially about how we grow up by absorbing what is useful in our parents and forgiving what is not.
Don't look now, but Jeff Daniels' days as 'the other Jeff' may be coming to an end.
Hilarious, harrowing and heartbreaking, The Squid and the Whale is one of the best movies of the year.
It has the messiness of real life, with uncombed hair and unanswered questions.
A brutal study in distracted parenting.
This is a warm, measured little ballad about the exquisitely sad whimsy of seeing the sanctity of your parent's union fall catastrophically down.
There is something intensely agreeable to me about a film of this kind. Its nervy characters, baffled by life and bruised by its disappointments; its picky dialogue; its gentle teasing, without condescension ...
Noah Baumbach's spleen is directed at the second-rate pretending that they are first-rate. This is called "punching down" and in line with America's degraded values.
There is a lot of awkwardness, some genuine sadness, some tension-relieving humor, and just enough suggestion of potential growth to avoid either an overly dark ending or a phony feel-good one.
The Squid and the Whale ... achieves an emotional catharsis [that] resists falling back on saccharine cliches
Try as he might to cut to the frayed nerves of a scene, Baumbach lets cuteness get in the way
There's who and what we want to be ... and there's who and what we are, combined with the anxiety that neither is accepted while hoping that everything will be okay in the end. The divorce drama here navigates the nuances of all of that, and the effect such tragi-comedies have on us all, amazingly done with humility, restraint and forgiveness by Noah Baumbach, and facillitated by a superb cast hitting on all cylinders.
Super Reviewer
Pleasant, engaging drama that boasts some stunning performances, I really enjoyed the Squid and the Whale, which is a surprisingly charming picture that mixes drama with a few aspects of comedy. The result is a film that is highly entertaining from start to finish, and each actor brings something great to the screen. The film is well worth seeing, and ranks among the finest dramas I have seen in the last few months. Even if this film is nearly a decade old, I'm glad I finally got around to seeing this film, as it is well worth your time. With effective performances that really bring out the best of the film's elements, The Squid and the Whale is a near perfect film that is well worth your time. It's a short, straight to the point film that just dives into its plot, and you get hooked fairly easily simple, yet effective this film takes a simple idea, and runs with it and pulls off something wonderful. Short and sweet, and to the point. This is an impressive picture, one that is accomplished in what it tries to do, and it features Jesse Eisenberg finest performance to date. This is the perfect mix of drama and comedy and it works quite well to grab your attention and make it a film going experience that will stick with you long after you've seen it. The performances are wonderful, and the plot is rich, and The Squid and the Whale has something for everyone. For those who enjoy the genre, this is a film well worth your time, and is an engaging picture from start to finish.
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I haven't been through a divorce, so this is all a little obscure to me, but this movie is believable. Although everyone struggles with the new arrangement - the movie primarily covers the impact on the kids. It bothers me that the parents say they are there for their kids, but really they are not. Both of them are more concerned about themselves than they are about their kids.
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