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WEDNESDAY | NOVEMBER 16, 2005 Senior Cadenza Editor / Laura Vilines / [email protected] STUDENT LIFE | CADENZA 7 The squid versus the whale Often, various reviewers have quite differing opinions about the same fi lm, television show or album. Here at Cadenza, we have decided to print two such reviews, one by our Editor in Chief Margaret Bauer; the other written by our own lowly Music Editor, Jordan Deam. Their contrasting takes are below for you to decide. Who’s right—the squid or the whale? ‘The Squid and the Whale’ aims for comedy and ‘The Squid and the Whale’ a masturbatory tale of family drama tragedy, and succeeds at both By Margaret Bauer wished I could run away from most of complete with all the standard clichés Editor in Chief these characters. of divorced life. An angsty, barely By Jordan Deam to make the viewer feel congenial local tennis pro So here’s the setup: Walt and his self-aware Walt can’t bring himself Cadenza Music Editor the agony of living in who is seeing his mother ★★✩✩✩ 12-year-old brother Frank (Owen to do anything his father wouldn’t their broken home within Joan (Laura Linney) by Kline) aren’t dealing particularly well do, until he has a stunning realiza- ★★★★★ a single snippet of acerbic the end of the fi lm. The The trailer for director Noah with being children of divorce. Walt tion—he used to like his mother! dialogue, yet nuanced young Frank is perhaps Baumbach’s semi-autobiographical “acts out” by appropriating a Pink Instead of taking this revelation as a Anyone going into enough to induce an oc- the easiest character to “The Squid and the Whale” portrays Floyd song and performs it as his own jumping-off point for reconciliation “The Squid and the casional pang of regret at empathize with, since a heartwarming tale of a Brooklyn at the high school talent show, then with his mother, he does the angsty Whale” expecting the having judged even the he is the least equipped family going through divorce in the berates his mother with a litany of movie thing—he runs across town to next “Elizabethtown,” most despicable charac- emotionally to handle his slightly washed out colors of 1986. supposed wrongs she committed, all see the squid and the whale exhibit brimming with “heart- ters so harshly. Baumbach family’s disintegration. The fi lm appears to be funny and drawn straight from the lips of gone- his mother took him to when he was warming” sentimentality is most damning in his No doubt partly due to a charming—a cute tale about a couple to-seed father Bernard (Jeff Daniels). younger. His entrance into the hall but lacking any genuine portrayal of Bernard (Jeff lack of parental attention, who just can’t get things right. Un- Frank, on the other hand, while barely containing this exhibit is meant to emotional content, may Daniels), the patriarch of he acts out by drinking fortunately, it turns out to be one of 12 years old, is frequently forgotten be nothing short of revelatory, as the wonder if they’re in the the household. A universi- and compulsively mas- those fi lms where the trailer contains and left behind by his preoccupied, music peaks, time slows, and lo and right theater. Despite ty professor and fl ounder- turbating in public. This every heartwarming moment in the self-centered parents, and proceeds behold, there are the suspended squid the autobiographical ing author, Bernard has brusque depiction of child movie—as we later learn, the rest of to take up a drinking and masturba- and whale, the fi lm’s namesake. What elements of the script— an aggressive tendency sexuality may make some the fi lm consists of awkward, jarring tion habit more true to the character a precious, overdone moment. which, due to director to constantly appraise viewers squeamish, but it moments (and camera angles) in a of an 18-year-old college student. He “The Squid and the Whale” is rife Noah Baumbach’s insis- the people around him does little to discredit the mélange of overdone and unrealistic is subsequently caught wiping semen with sex. But unfortunately, these are tent silence on the matter, in the same manner that spontaneous, unmediated character sketches. on a school locker and on books in the the days where mere sex is no longer will largely remain a mat- he does literature and feel of the fi lm. The “shaky-cam” scenes at the school library. edgy or experimental enough for a ter of speculation—the fi lm: if a person isn’t suf- While each of the ac- beginning of the fi lm, presumably Now, the children of divorce are of- fi lm like this, so the screenwriter characters in his fi lm are fi ciently “intellectual” for tors involved delivers a meant to lend immediacy to the open- ten marginalized and deal poorly with cranks it up a notch. As in the recent not mere surrogates for his tastes, he labels him a wonderfully understated, ing scene of a tennis match between their ever-changing home situation. “Pretty Persuasion,” we witness the himself, existing only to “Philistine” and doggedly unstudied performance, family members, showcase some of That’s become a truism in this time of awkward moments of mutual mas- parrot grandiose state- disparages him in front Baumbach deserves most the problems with this fi lm. This is 40 percent divorce rates and drawn- turbation that high school couples ments about Love and of his two sons, who are of the credit for the fi lm’s a drama that desperately wants to out custody battles. But Frank’s ac- endure. The emphasis on semen at Life that are destined for among the few people success. His writing is be “painfully funny,” but can’t quite tions don’t seem realistic—they seem points throughout the fi lm almost the “inspiring quotes” with whom he still holds taut but expressive; the make it. It’s a big-studio “indie” that’s more fi tting for a mentally disturbed makes the viewer wonder whether section of a 16-year-old any infl uence. “retro” visual style serves made to fulfi ll our quota of quirky yet child who never absorbed proper the screenwriter and director shared girl’s diary. They are This strategy proves to add authenticity to delightful characters going through social norms than a well-educated some behind-the-scenes joke relating deeply fl awed individuals successful in Bernard’s the characters rather the trauma of growing up together. middle-class son of brilliant writers. squid and whales to semen. who manage to rouse in oldest son, Walt (Jesse than distract from them We’re supposed to love them for their It’s edgy, to be sure, but shock value All this tension caused by the the viewer a mixture of Eisenberg), a budding (as in Wes Anderson’s complexities and their low-budget seems like the only point of including fi lm’s sexuality and emotional angst sympathy, disdain and pseudo-intellectual who’s later works). Even the ‘80s aura. these masturbation vignettes. Oo, how culminates in a series of impossibly intense interest. managed to inherit his soundtrack, which runs But the only sympathetic char- shocking and daring, they put mas- awkward scenes. When I say “over- The more we learn father’s prejudices with- the gamut from Tangerine acters in this fi lm are the beautiful turbation on fi lm. Oo, how shocking, a done,” this is what I’m talking about: about the lives of the out any knowledge of how Dream’s moody sound- mother Joan (Laura Linney) and ten- 12-year-old is left alone to drink beer. vignettes about family troubles, Berkman family, the they are derived. Walt is scapes to Loudon Wain- nis pro Ivan (William Baldwin)—the Score two for the writers. This is one sexuality and divorce are pushed to fi lm’s four protagonists, soft-spoken and articu- wright’s elegiac folk, is others are overwrought and scripted of those fi lms where you don’t know the tipping point of absurdity in this the more they seem to late, but almost pathologi- meticulously chosen and to the point where their actions are whether you should groan or laugh at fi lm, in the manner of a typical Wes unravel. Thankfully, cally self-important: after always serves to heighten not only disgusting and distorted, but the jokes. Anderson fi lm. (Perhaps not coinci- Baumbach’s subtlety as a being confronted by a the mood of the accompa- also don’t quite ring true. Just as the Each character in “The Squid and dentally, Anderson’s name is given writer prevents him from school offi cial after his nying scene rather than family’s 16-year-old son Walt (Jesse the Whale” is overdone to the point of prime billing during the opening tying up the frayed ends talent show performance overwhelm it. Eisenberg) simply wants to run away caricature, such that it plays out like titles—and writer/director Baumbach in an attempt to make is revealed to be a fraud, “The Squid and the when faced with his blowhard, de- a bad informational fi lm about the was also a writer on Anderson’s “The the story more digestible. Walt confesses to a thera- Whale” is a fi lm rife with manding father in a hospital bed, so I potential consequences of divorce, Life Aquatic.”) Actors Eisenberg and Instead, he crafts a fi lm pist that the reason he confrontation: the title Klein appear that eschews the ideal- passed off the work as his derives from a diorama to have been ized Hollywood view that own was because he felt at the Museum of Natural FRESHMAN FIFTEEN cast as much divorce, like any per- he could have written the History in New York—ap- for their awk- sonal tragedy, can teach song—the fact that Pink propriately named “The ward looks valuable “life lessons,” Floyd already had was Clash of the Titans.” as for their opting for an ambiguous inconsequential.

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