The Squid and the Whale is Noah Baumbach’s 2005 ode to growing up amidst the snobbery of academics in 1980’s Brooklyn- capturing a time and a place with cinematic fetishism while crafting a fascinating portrait of a particular family, based roughly on Baumbach’s own. Jeff Daniels is a literature professor named Bernard Berkman who’s career is on the decline- as his wife Joan (Laura Linney) begins gaining respect for her own work. Their two sons Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline) are regular kids, until their parents sit them down in their Park Slope apartment and reveal that they are going to separate.
The ensuing power struggle is the heart of the film, as Bernard gains the allegiance of the eldest boy Walt (the character most resembling Baumbach). Walt is a seventeen-year old intellectual, and Jesse Eisenberg plays the role to perfection- spouting phrases such as “Kafka-esque” and turning into his father’s sycophant, echoing his father’s opinions on literature (Tale of Two Cities is “minor Dickens”) and his mother. In a way, the film centers around Walt, following his strained first love and musical aspirations- performing Pink Floyd’s “Hey You” at the high school talent show while claiming he wrote the song himself. Eisenberg is born for this role, and it will certainly last as one of his best performances.
Walt’s younger brother Frank is a strange boy who takes tennis lessons from a “pro” (William Baldwin), who gives him the encouragement lacking in his real father’s parenting. His mother soon begins seeing the tennis pro, and a jealous triangle pits the family against one another.
The film, directed by Baumbach but produced by Wes Anderson and containing obvious influences, is on-point- the wine, the New Yorker, and all elements of WASP snobbery rolled into something quite funny. Like Anderson, Baumbach borders on the surreal, especially with the idiosyncratic dialogue and exaggerated pomposity of all parties. The end result is both an intelligent and heartfelt slice-of-life narrative that, while limited in scope, is extremely enjoyable.
