Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.
Baumbach's semi-autobiographical drama is sharply written with an unflinching, darkly comedic honesty about divorce's damage on children—the plot is genuinely incisive and specific. The performances, particularly Jeff Daniels as the insufferable intellectual father, are exceptional and career-defining. Cinematography is competent and period-appropriate but unremarkable, using handheld 16mm to evoke the era without particular visual ambition. Novelty is moderate: while the film has a distinctive voice and autobiographical rawness, it fits within a recognizable tradition of New York intellectual family dramas. The ending is quietly effective but somewhat abrupt, feeling more like a cessation than a resolution, which suits the material thematically but doesn't fully satisfy.