The squid and the whale is a film with a story based on experiences director Noah Baumbach had. We follow Walt and Frank as they learn to live through their parents divorcing, figuring out split custody for themselves, and for their cat. It's clear that the boys pick sides, Walt with his father, and frank with his mother. The whole family changes as they manage to learn the ropes of their new lives, and by the end of the film, they are all remarkably different people. This film left me a little confused. Not because of it's plot, but because it was hard to understand what everyone truly wanted. On the surface, we see that Joan wants to leave Bernard, but at the same time, Although angry at her decisions, Bernard wants to save his marriage, and his family. Walt wants to seem intelligent, dense (the word I heard the most in this film, aside from "difficult" and "ass-man"), and like his father. I also think Walt just wanted to be a 16 year old boy, learning about girls, but his influence and advisor, Bernard, wasn't the best one. The hardest to decipher was Frank. At first, he just wants his parents to stay together, for everyone to be under the same roof, and to keep the cat. But as the story moves forward, Frank starts drinking beer and wine, compares his bone structure to his mother's, Masturbates in public and smears his semen on bookshelves and lockers, and that scene with his mother's lingerie and the condom. I just don't know what to make of that. I've heard stories about divorce from real people, seen it in tv shows and movies, and read about it in books. Nothing as been quite as strange as this, so naturally it makes sense that this is based on Baumbach's experiences. In an interview for indiewire.com, Baumbach explains, "Two contrasting things kept me from writing this story: on the one hand, everyone deals with divorce – it’s too universal. On the other, it’s too specific to my family, and won’t resonate beyond that." I didn't know this film was actually something Baumbach went through, so I had an "ah-hah" moment when I read that this was someone's story and not something created by some weird author from a messed up book or something like that. Baumbach also says, "Unconsciously, at some point I just let go and thought, Let’s see what happens." I think for having this moment of carefree-ness turned out well, although I wasn't really a fan of this film. While explaining Joint custody, the boys both ask about the cat which I thought was extremely funny A different idea that floated around in my brain while watching the squid and the whale was Claustrophobia and isolation. This is a theme we've seen in a couple films we've watched this semester, but I think the form it takes in this film is a bit different. Writer Mark Asch in the article The Squid and the whale / Men don't leave, says "Family members, especially in the city, live on top of each other." This is easy to agree with because this family lives in New York, where everyone is cramped and scrambling for space. Not only are they in close quarters because of their small houses, but Walt and Frank are being transferred from one parent's house to the other, and that's where they stay, especially Frank. Walt ventures out a bit once he begins dating Sophie, but frank on the other hand, is at home, either at his lefty desk at his Bernard's house, or drinking beer at Joan's. There's also the scene when Joan and Ivan go out of town and Bernard is supposed to pick him up, but goes on a trip with Lily and Walt and leaves him behind for a couple days. I think this also shows isolation, and I don't mean so much literally, even though that's also true, but because Frank doesn't really have much of a place in this. He wants to be around Joan, but she spends time with Ivan, and Walt and Bernard are with each other or with Lily. It just seems to me that Frank was estranged and an isolated character in this film, and I felt a bit bad for him. I feel ya, frank. I'd cry too if I were in your shoes
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