The Squid And The Whale It is so fabricated that it has to be realistic and when one achieves that fine line on the horizon and manages to perfectly balance it until the curtain drops there is a cathartic release among viewers which is quite rare to find. Noah Baumbach's writing is way too strong and has enormous potential to be independent of any barring or restrains and floats peculiarly where one cannot move away ones concentration from it. His execution skills are admirable too but might have to work on it a bit more to even match with its astoundingly poetic script. Jeff Daniels has got it covered on "performance" department where Laura Linney and Jesse Eisenberg are supporting him throughout the course of it. The Squid And The Whale is not your typical dysfunctional family genre feature for the places it visits and the range it contains, is something one can't even possibly imagine.

I thought the movie was pretty sad that we realise the parents (Daniels and Linney) split up and the fact, their boys were affected by this. I was really alarmed when Owen Kline's character was drinking alcohol at his young age because of this, I couldn't get over that they didn't suspect him getting a heart attack, not Jeff Daniels character as the father! It does reflect on some children who experience family breakdowns and trying to cope around the situation. I have to admit, there were some scenes seeing the boy Frank drinking alcohol, was very hard to watch. The movie was also shocking as well like, I didn't honestly expect to see Anna Paquin involved on this! I only found out that herself and Daniels acted again on this for the first time since "Fly Away Home" 10 years earlier. It was surreal that Paquin kissed Daniels and I still thought of them as film dad/daughter. They were a pretty good couple anyway so Im not complaining here lol! Although there was some sad and funny moments in this film, it was actually quite good! I give this movie a rating of 8/10!

"The Squid and the Whale" (2005) reminded me a bit of "Thumbsucker" (2005), "Me and You and Everyone We Know" (2005) and "Little Miss Sunshine" (2006). I guess weird "Indie" (aka "art house") movies about dysfunctional families where "a thing" a decade ago, although I have to say that "The Squid and the Whale" is by far the most disturbing in the list. While still far from the disturbia scale of "Happiness" (1998), "The Squid and the Whale" had more than enough of those moments that are just so awkward you can only shrug your shoulders in disbelief.If you're into weird 2005-ish "Indie" movies about dysfunctional families, "The Squid and the Whale" is a movie that should not be missed. If not, you might want to skip it. You won't be missing much.

It's 1986 Brooklyn. Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels) is a petty, self-important writer on the decline. His son Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) worships him. His wife Joan (Laura Linney) is divorcing him and gaining success as a writer. His younger son Frank questions his superiority. Joan starts going out with tennis pro Ivan (William Baldwin). Walt pushes aside his girlfriend Sophie as he falls for Bernard's student and possible girlfriend Lili (Anna Paquin).I don't know if Noah Baumbach is presenting something from his life. All I know is that the father is unrelentingly annoying. He makes it hard to watch this movie sometimes. Walt also presents his own problems but Bernard's ugly personality overshadows everything. He takes away any humor or joy from the film.