SQUID & THE WHALE

[Vic Sage]

I read some great reviews of this movie. It got an oscar nomination for its screenplay. so i rented it.

My wife and I watched in stunned disbelief at the sheer awfulness of it. There wasn't a single recognizable human being in the story, much less one you could actually CARE about.

I wanted to put my eyes out with a philips head.

the missus concurred.

Its one redeeming feature... it ran only 81 minutes. But it was the longest 81 minutes i've experienced since i had to go to the Emergency Room with a 2nd degree burn on my fingertips, and it took them 1 1/2 hours to get to me.

I'm curious to hear the defense for this film, if there is one.

[Guest sharpie]

I'll disagree with you.

The Jeff Daniels character was certainly recognizable to me, maybe because I live in Park Slope and see these wanna geniuses walking around all day long -- matter of fact I feel like I met one of them yesterday.

Yes, all the characters are awful, though my wife met those who thought he was awful and she wasn't but really she was just as bad.

Why is it hard to believe that there are parents whose egos are so enormous that they could give a rip about what they're doing to their children? Isn't it normal for kids to admire their parents, even if those parents are reprehensible shits? And doesn't that sort of behavior of the parents eventually trickle down so that those kids become the same sort of lousy people their parents were? Maybe you don't want to watch that in a movie, that I can understand, but unrecognizable -- not at all.

[Guest Rotblatt]

This was the filet minon of Baumbach. I found it hilarious with some fine dramatic moments. I mean, having a pretentious kid earnestly describe "Metamorphasis" as "Kafkaesque"--genius.

And like sharpie, I definitely recognized the characters--they were overblown, but it WAS a satire, after all . . . . Anyway, the New Yorker's review summed it up nicely for me.

Which is kind of ironic, really.

[soupcan]

Baumbach - met the guy about 12 years ago. Used to wear a scarf in the summer indoors.

Dumbass.

[Vic Sage]

soupcan wrote: Used to wear a scarf in the summer indoors.

thats pretty much all you need to know about him. No wonder his film was so freakin pretentious and repellant.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Saw it last nite as part of the Laura Linney Film Festival we accidently had.

I thought Jeff Daniels was great! What a character. The movie was, eh -- I couldn't believe they set a movie in NYC in 1986 and the only team they mention is the Knicks. I suppose had my folks split up I'd have identified more.

I gave it a 3, not knowing, in this poll, which way is up.