The Squid and the Whale

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The Squid and the Whale

Directed by	Noah Baumbach
Produced by	Wes Anderson Peter Newman Charles Corwin Clara Markowicz
Written by	Noah Baumbach
Starring	Jeff Daniels Laura Linney Jesse Eisenberg Owen Kline Anna Paquin
Music by	Dean Wareham Britta Phillips Randall Poster
Distributed by	Samuel Goldwyn Films
Release date(s)	October 5, 2005
Running time	81 min.
Language	English
Budget	$1,500,000 USD (estimated)
IMDb profile

The Squid and the Whale is a 2005 comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of two boys in New York dealing with their parents' divorce in the 1980s.

The Squid and the Whale was a success with critics. At the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, the film won awards for best dramatic direction and screenwriting and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Baumbach later received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. The film received six Independent Spirit Award nominations and three Golden Globe nominations. The New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Board of Review voted its screenplay the year’s best.

1 Plot Summary
2 Cast
3 Reception
4 Awards
5 Soundtrack
- 5.1 Soundtrack trivia
6 Trivia
7 DVD release date
8 External links

[edit] Plot Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Bernard (Jeff Daniels) is a novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline as he spends more time teaching and less time writing. His wife, Joan (Laura Linney), meanwhile, has recently begun publishing her own work to widespread acclaim, which only increases the growing tension between them. One day, Bernard and Joan's two sons—16-year-old Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and 12-year-old Frank (Owen Kline)—are told that their parents are separating, with Bernard renting a house on the other side of Prospect Park from their home in Park Slope, Brooklyn. As the parents set up a schedule for spending time with their children, Walt and Frank can hardly imagine that things could get more combative between their folks, but they do, as Joan begins dating Ivan (William Baldwin), Frank's tennis instructor, and Bernard starts sharing the house with Lili (Anna Paquin), one of his students. Meanwhile, the two boys begin taking sides in the battle between their parents, with Walt taking after his father and Frank siding with his mom.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

Jeff Daniels – Bernard Berkman
Laura Linney – Joan Berkman
Jesse Eisenberg – Walt Berkman
Owen Kline – Frank Berkman
Halley Feiffer – Sophie
Anna Paquin – Lili
William Baldwin – Ivan
Ken Leung – School Counselor

[edit] Reception

The Squid and the Whale was met with critical acclaim. It scored 82 out of 100 on Metacritic according to 37 critics and 94% on RottenTomatoes. On the episode of Ebert & Roeper they both praised the film with "two thumbs up!" In Ebert's separate review for the film he wrote "All I know is, it is better to be the whale than the squid. Whales inspire major novels."

Premiere Magazine critic Glenn Kenny gave plenty of praise for the film as he wrote, "It's a rare film that can be convincingly tender, bitterly funny, and ruthlessly cutting over the course of fewer than 90 minutes. The Squid and the Whale not only manages this, it also contains moments that sock you with all three qualities at the same time."

Dallas Observer film critic writes, "Treacherously funny and wrenchingly sad." While Time Magazine critic Richard Corliss writes "The Squid and the Whale is domestic tragedy recollected as comedy: a film whose catalog of deceits and embarrassments, and of love pratfalling over itself, makes it as (excruciatingly) painful as it is (exhilaratingly) funny."

It was on many best of 2005 lists.

[edit] Awards

Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay
Six Independent Spirit Award nominations. Best Feature, Best Director (Baumbach), Best Screenplay (Baumbach), Best Supporting Male (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Female Lead (Laura Linney) and Best Male Lead (Jeff Daniels)
Three Golden Globe nominations (Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, Jeff Daniels for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Laura Linney for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy)
Won Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Screenplay
Awarded Best Screenplay by the National Board of Review
Won New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Screenplay
Won Best Screenplay and Best Actress (Laura Linney) at the 2005 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards

[edit] Soundtrack

"Park Slope" - Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham
"Courting Blues" - Bert Jansch
"Holland Tunnel" - John Phillips
"Lullaby" - Loudon Wainwright III
"Heart Like a Wheel" - Kate & Anna McGarrigle
"The Bright New Year" - Bert Jansch
"Drive" - The Cars
"Let's Go" - The Feelies
"Figure Eight" - Blossom Dearie
"Come Sing Me a Happy Song to Prove We All Can Get Along the Lumpy, Bumpy, Long & Dusty Road" - Bert Jansch
"Hey You " - Pink Floyd (Performed by Dean Wareham)
"Family Conference" - Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham
"Street Hassle" - Lou Reed
"The Swimming Song" - Loudon Wainwright III

[edit] Soundtrack trivia

The soundtrack features two songs by Loudon Wainwright III and one by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle were briefly married during the 1970s and had two children, Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright (both of whom are now also accomplished singer/songwriters). Wainwright and McGarrigle would later divorce. The two Loudon Wainwright III songs are from the 1973 album Attempted Mustache on which McGarrigle has a significant influence. "Lullaby" was influenced by the birth of Rufus Wainwright while "The Swimming Song" features both Loudon Wainwright and McGarrigle on the five-string banjo (an instrument McGarrigle taught Wainwright how to play).

[edit] Trivia

The film is named after a giant squid and sperm whale diorama found at the American Museum of Natural History.
Bill Murray was originally cast as Bernard Berkman but he backed out because he wanted to take a break after filming Broken Flowers.
In the summer of 2004, scenes were filmed in Midwood High School's auditorium, using students in 80s style costumes from the school's drama club as extra seat fillers. The production also used background scenes on the stage that had been painted for the Drama Club's production of Bye Bye Birdie, two months prior.
The film makes many references to the film Risky Business, including the original score from the film.
Filmed on Super 16mm.
A poster of current WWE wrestler The Hurricane can be seen in the background, despite the movie taking place in the 1980s.
Jonathan Baumbach, the filmmaker's father, can be seen behind the principal in the scene discussing Frank's behavior.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Baumbach originally wanted to use the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" instead of "Hey You," but he could not secure the rights to the Pete Townshend song.
Anna Paquin in this film has a romantic relationship with Jeff Daniels' character. In Fly Away Home, a movie made nine years earlier, she played Jeff Daniels' daughter.

Spoilers end here.