The Squid and the Whale Reviews
It's a medium film about parental measures. [Full review in Spanish]
Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Jul 18, 2020
The film may offer a climb up Oscar's greasy pole for Eisenberg and Daniels.
Full Review | May 7, 2020
Beyond derivative, what The Squid and the Whale often feels like is a [Wes] Anderson film that has been filleted and its guts scooped out, leaving a hollow corpse behind.
Full Review | Jan 29, 2020
Baumbach has created an unforgettable film about horrifyingly human people.
Full Review | Jul 9, 2019
Despite the acidic tone, The Squid and the Whale is a disarmingly funny film, one that offers a wealth of insight into the modern American family.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 4, 2019
This is a warm, measured little ballad about the exquisitely sad whimsy of seeing the sanctity of your parent's union fall catastrophically down.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2018
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 ...
Full Review | Jan 25, 2018
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.
Full Review | Dec 27, 2017
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.
Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 7, 2017
The Squid and the Whale ... achieves an emotional catharsis [that] resists falling back on saccharine cliches
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 16, 2017
Try as he might to cut to the frayed nerves of a scene, Baumbach lets cuteness get in the way
Full Review | Sep 1, 2009
A simple but engrossing parable of a family set in half, and their children having to choose sides.
Full Review | Apr 29, 2009
Like the diorama in New York's Museum of Natural History from which the film's title is derived, The Squid And The Whale depicts deep-seated conflict in a manner that is at once exquisitely lifelike and mesmerisingly awful to look at.
Full Review | Aug 6, 2007
The script is delightful, and the banter between the family members is fresh without seeming too scripted.
Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jun 21, 2007
Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 19, 2006
Un retrato honesto y revelador de la descomposición de un matrimonio, visto desde la perspectiva de los hijos adolescentes.
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2006
...Baumbach's most emotionally potent and visually coherent film to date.
Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Aug 5, 2006
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 12, 2006
Doesn't break much new ground in terms of parental misconduct or adolescent sexual confusion.
Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 4, 2006
Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | May 4, 2006