The Squid and the Whale

2005 family movie

Rating: 17/20 (Jen: 16/20)

Plot: The Berkmans decide to end their troubled marriage and decide to have joint custody of their two sons. The sons find it difficult not to pick sides while their parents attempt to move on in their different ways.

Something like this can only be autobiographical which makes me kind of sad. This might as well be a Wes Anderson movie. Baumbach and Anderson are buds, and the dialogue and dysfunctional families made up of unlikable but easy-to-love pseudo-intellectual souls in this could easily have been characters in that or that. One of those characters is played by Jeff Daniels, an actor who always surprises me. I'll probably be surprised when I find out that I've already written that on this blog before probably. He's so good here playing a character who doesn't know he's going to be laughed at. I connected with the character, probably because he reminds me of somebody I know. Nothing that Daniels does here is dazzling, but this father is one complex character, one that is as shallow as can be while simultaneously having a whole lot of depth. And look at who else is on that poster: Jesse Eisenberg, a guy who my long-time 4 1/2 readers know I have a don't-mind-too-much/hate relationship with. This was the first time I noticed him, and the one character he's capable of playing is the perfect character for this spot. The other kid, Owen Kline, is really good, too, and I'm not just saying he's good for a child actor. It's one of those roles that makes you wonder why parents would allow their child to participate. It's not the cursing as much as it is the jism. Laura Linney is just as good as this character who, on the surface at least, is more likable than Daniels' character, even though she just might be the worse human being. It depends, I guess. Daniels' character is unlikable because of some personality flaws; Linney's character acts selfishly. With four unlikable characters driving this sorta-story, this movie might seem difficult to enjoy, but the characters are played so well and the script combines absolute despair and humor so well. It's humorous, but it's an uncomfortable kind of humor, partly because the performances are good enough to make you think these are real people and partly because you're really laughing at other people's misfortune. Personally, I don't have a problem with that because I do it anyway. The dialogue's fantastic, sneakily self-referential, the sort of words that bury truer meanings. It's entirely possible that I'm just impressed that a movie can survive under the weight of both an Eisenberg and a Baldwin brother. One big question, however: How is it that nobody seems to recognize that Eisenberg's character has ripped off a Pink Floyd song? He could probably have gotten away with a Syd Barrett b-side, but not something from The Wall. Speaking of music, a few tracks by both Bert Jansch and Loudon Wainwright III don't hurt matters here. I really can't think of another movie that is this depressing but still manages to be this enjoyable. It's not a downer despite being sort of a downer as Baumbach pretty much eviscerates his parents on screen. My favorite little scene is when Daniels, Eisenberg, and Eisenberg's girlfriend go to a movie. Short Circuit was vetoed in favor of another movie, one completely appropriate for a father to take his teen son and son's girlfriend to.

I'll have to check, but I believe this is the only the second time I've used the word jism in a blog entry. That's almost shocking. Anybody want to take a stab at the other movie I used that word in? I'll buy a doughnut for the first person to guess it unless I suspect that you looked it up. Then, I'll just imitate Wonka and say, "You get nothing!"

30 Minutes or Less

2011 comedy

Rating: 12/20

Plot: A pair of criminals plan the perfect crime but don't have enough money to execute it. So they plan another perfect crime--kidnap a pizza delivery person, strap a bomb to him, and force him to rob a bank. Poor Jesse Eisenberg.

This is the exoskeleton of something that Don Knotts and Tim Conway would have been in with raunchiness and loudness stuck to it. The problem might be that Jesse Eisenberg is no Don Knotts. Nobody is. See, part of me--especially after his really good work in The Social Network and the humorous The Living Wake which might just be funny despite him--wants to push our differences aside, forget that his sister made those Pepsi commercials which did worse things to my stomach than drinking carbonated beverages could ever do, forgive him for a brow which he can't even help, and try to like the guy. But after liking him in a couple movies, this happens. He's not really the problem with this at all though. Neither is Aziz Ansari who I also want to like, probably just because he's on Parks and Recreation. Their chemistry here as BFF's seems a little forced. Then again, I'm pretty sure it would be hard for anybody to stand next to Jesse Eisenberg in a movie and make whatever relationship seem natural. I do like how Ansari is referred to as a "mini-genie" here. Oh, and Michael Pena plays a character named Chang, and he just grabs this character by the nuts and runs with it. This ends up just being another one of those modern comedies, one that takes a clever enough idea and fails to do enough with it. There are some funny individual lines ("You had a lunchables for dinner.") and I thought it was funny how Nick Swardson's character made monkey noises during the kidnapping scene. And I really liked this bit of dialogue:

Swardson's dumb character: Where the hell did all these leaves come from?
Danny McBride's dumb character: Where do you think? Fucking trees.
Swardson's dumb character: That's what she said.

But too often, the humor in this seems like it was collected by spinning The Hangover or Superbad around really fast and waiting for some stuff to fly off so that it could be inserted in this script. I don't think I'll remember much about this movie in a few months, and I doubt I start quoting it this weekend at my 20 year reunion.

The Living Wake

2007 dark comedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: K. Roth Binew, escorted by his only friend Mills Joquin, prepares for his titular wake by traveling about via rickshaw to invite his friends, family, and enemies.

Bonus point for the rickshaw. This doesn't seem to be a very popular movie, probably from the lot of people who hate the entire Eisenberg family who refuse to see the movie but still write bad things about it, but I thought it was very amusing and enjoyed its almost cartoonish philosophical themes and its go-nowhere plot. Speaking of Eisenberg, he's about right here except for an accent that kind of goes in and out, but he's mostly good for being out of the way of the real star of the show, Mike O'Connell as K. Roth Binew. Binew's a character you'll either love to hate, hate to love, or just plain hate. He's boastful with nothing at all to boast about, rudely brazen, ornery as five-year-old, and as animated as a character from a Monty Python sketch. He's a great half-realized character, but you'll hate him and most people, I reckon, will find him more annoying than humorous. I say half-realized, by the way, not as a criticism--it's appropriately for this character. His sole purpose on this final day of his is to create a complete life, leave a weird little legacy, build himself up into this mythic artistic genius, but from the episodes we get here, it's easy to see that his is a wasted life. There's just something nonsensically poignant about the whole thing. This isn't a movie that will likely ever have much of an audience, not even a cult one, and that makes me sad since it does have a rickshaw in it. Comedian Jim Gaffigan makes an appearance and doesn't talk about hot pockets even once. If this movie didn't have an Eisenberg in it and you'd told me it was a comedy from the 70's, I might have believed you. And I don't mean that as a bad thing.

The Social Network

2010 movie

Rating: 17/20 (Jen: 15/20; Dylan: 6/20)

Plot: In order to impress an ex-girlfriend, socially-inept computer genius Mark Zuckerberg steals an idea described to him by jocky twins and ends up the youngest billionaire in the history of money. He calls it The Facebook until a former member of 'N Sync tells him to drop the article adjective. But with the immediate success and the monies that it brings comes both personal and legal problems. Apparently, you have to be a real asshole in order to make a billion dollars.

Michael Cera was really good in this. The pacing is as quick as his character's cadence, and there were times I felt like I had to lean forward on the couch cushion a little bit to catch everything that he was saying. Was Zuckerberg a jerk? Absolutely, but he's a likable villain and even though the folks he screws over really didn't deserve it, Michael Cera plays Zuckerberg as a real guy instead of a burlesque. I guess it's easier to like a bad guy when he's intelligent and witty, no matter how much meanness is sprinkled in with that intelligence and wit. The script is quick and occasionally very funny, and especially for a movie that is so dialogue-driven, this never bored me. Not to say it doesn't have its share of tedious scenes. Almost every scene that took place in a club made me want to leave the room, probably the same feeling I'd have if I was actually in a club. Aside from the lead, I enjoyed the performances of Andrew Garfield as Zuckerberg's partner Eduardo, the always-surprising and immensely-talented Justin Timberlake as the Napster guy (he almost plays the character as a little evil gnome that sits on Zuckerberg's shoulder, whispering temptations into his ear), and Armie Hammer who I didn't even realize was one guy. Armie Hammer (what an unfortunate name) fooled me into thinking he was two people, like a burly Hayley Mills. Which reminds me--as a child, I had recurring dreams about a burly Hayley Mill chasing me around the lawn and threatening me with vegetables. I always had mismatched shoes in those dreams. Or, occasionally, mismatched feet. But I digress. Here's the most surprising thing about this movie and very likely any movie experience I've ever had--I actually enjoyed watching an Eisenberg on my screen. Yes, I know it wasn't Michael Cera. I really did like Jesse's performance, one that almost makes up for all the ways he's annoyed me previously. It does not, however, cover up his sister's sins. Eisenberg's got some sneaky layers here that gave his character some depth you wouldn't figure he had.

And now I notice that Armie Hammer didn't actually play twins. Somebody named Josh Pence played the other one in most scenes. I take back everything I said about Armie Hammer being the next Hayley Mills. He's still got a great name though.