The Squid and the Whale

Two boys learn the hard way about how a marriage falls apart in this independent comedy drama. Bernard (Jeff Daniels) is a novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline as he spends more time teaching and less time writing. His wife, Joan (Laura Linney), meanwhile, has recently begun publishing ...more

Writer/director Noah Baumbach takes a major step forward as a filmmaker with The Squid and the Whale. Perhaps it's the combination of revelatory autobiographical content and producer Wes Anderson's formal influence, but this is Baumbach's most emotionally potent and visually coherent film to date. While Baumbach's primary focus remains on his characters -- their personality quirks including what might be called "comfort phrases," (Ivan's use of "my brother" as punctuation, Joan [Laura ...more