The Squid and the Whale

A writer couple separate in Brooklyn in 1986 and their two sons are split between two homes by day of the week. The pain comes less from the divorce than from watching the children imitate their parents' language: the older boy repeats his father's sentences about books he has not read. Noah Baumbach took the story from his own family; the film is semi-autobiographical. It was shot on Super 16 rather than digital to give it the texture of the eighties. Baumbach kept the script deliberately spare and explained why: he wanted the audience carried from one scene into the next without room to stop and reflect. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney play the separating couple, with Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline as their sons. It won the directing award at Sundance and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. On a 1.5 million dollar budget it grossed 11.2 million. Who it is for: viewers who want family dysfunction handled briefly and without mercy. It runs 81 minutes. Who it is not for: anyone looking for someone to like. Everyone here is unbearable at some point, the father especially.