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Reviews (105)
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Ddemi adejuyigbe 8 月 23, 2026
It’s funny every single time Billy Baldwin says “brother.” Every time.
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Shocked that Jesse Eisenberg took credit for one of Pink Floyd’s most popular songs and his family of supposed intellectuals didn’t even know
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I’m gonna come clean, this is a super unlikeable film. Its characters are pretentious and unredeemable past the point of feeling any empathy, the soundtrack sounds exactly how you’d expect it to sound based off the poster, Jesse Eisenberg is in it…I mean, come on. It feels static but the underlying anger and toxicity of the situation is simultaneously always building till it reaches a point where it needs to come out. It feels real in a different way than what I’m used to. It’s honest and it’s different, I just wish I felt anything about it.
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evidence that it only takes one therapy session for a pretentious teenage boy to stop idolizing their father
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In my opinion a better film than Marriage Story. Am I crazy? I don’t think so but I might be a philistine
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The kid drinks a beer Hmmm he is a little strange The kid grinds against a book shelf Alright the kid is really strange The kid wipes his cum on the library books Woah this kid is fucked up and I want him off my screen right now!
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Dad is a pretentious jerk. Mom is having serial affairs. Little brother is cursing like a sailor, masturbating at every opportunity and smearing his semen on library books. Older brother is plagiarizing Pink Floyd lyrics and passing them off as his own. But hey, it’s Brooklyn in the 1980s. The solution, of course, is for the parents to divorce and arrange for joint custody of the kids. Or is it? This highly autobiographical family drama from Noah Baumbach is a testament to the director’s talent and ability to bring the best out in his actors, even on an indie budget. The dialog and situations seem starkly real. There’s tension. There are shocks. And there is resolution, but only of the…
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I can only imagine the impact this would have on a child of divorce, but still found this very affecting. Sort of the evil twin of Royal Tenenbaums
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i just know slapping the fuck out of jesse eisenberg would feel sooooo good
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🧑🧑🧒🧒🧑🧒🧒🧑🧒🏡🏠
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Sshiramarkbenzvi 8 月 22, 2026
בטח יש במחברת הזאת הרבה נושאים שחוזרים על עצמם. זה לא מפתיע. אני מנסה להסיק מסקנות. אחת מהן הוא הרעיון שהרבה פעמים מה שמציל סרט הוא הפגמים שלו. אולי פגמים זו לא המילה הנכונה. אולי עדיף לומר קצוות פרומים. קל לי לדמיין כמה כפייתי וחינוכי היה הסרט הזה אם התסביכים של הגיבורים שלו היו יותר שלמים אמינים או מנומקים. בתחילת הסרט ממש אחרי משחק הטניס שבו כבר קלטתי שזה הולך להיות סרט על גירושים וממש לפני שגיגלתי שזה סרט של…
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The Squid and the Whale is a brutally honest little movie. It’s funny, uncomfortable, awkward, and sometimes downright painful to watch and I think that’s precisely why it works. I think it’s an excellent film. It’s not comforting nor particularly sentimental and it certainly doesn’t offer a neat lesson about divorce. Instead, it shows how easily children can inherit the emotional baggage of their parents. The most heartbreaking part is watching Walt realize that his father isn’t the extraordinary intellectual…
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So worth the watch, and the tears
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Wwaferdad 8 月 21, 2026
That shit fuckin rocked
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Weird (non-derogatory)
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i blame the dad for making the whole damn family resentful
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JJasper 8 月 21, 2026
A less stylized Wes Anderson movie (it has emotions)
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what a masterpiece how had i never heard of this
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The Squid and the Whale is a masterclass in indie filmmaking—raw, deeply observant, and funny in a cringey, tragic way. It is a must-watch if you appreciate sharp character studies or realistic family dramas.
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Three and a half but like I would give it 3.75 if I could… I like the screenplay
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Can’t believe Noah Baumbach made this and then did Marriage Story (which I don’t like). This CLEARS! The chaos of the every-other-day custody agreement is on full display here and I feel vindicated. Everyone is a nightmare to varying degrees but I can still sympathize. All of these women were beautiful, these men are evil and insane. Joan laughing Bernard out of the house was inspired. This is a total masterpiece and might have to go in the top 4 idk!
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it’s very dense we even have the same nemesis! jeff daniels….
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The kind of movie that’s so good that if you squint for a brief moment you can almost trick yourself into thinking that you could have written it.
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Incredible pairing with Marriage Story, both semi-autobiographical stories showing different perspectives of a fractured family. Criterion challenge 2000s
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Quite pretentious this film is; it feels extremely real but so much so that it comes off as performative
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Scene for scene my experience. Only difference is my parents don’t know who Godard is.
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So to-the-point, it’s phenomenal. So sharp in its observations of looks, glances, cutting words, and questions that shatter peace and allowances held together with fear, resentment, and misunderstandings. Bernard holding on so tightly even after the slights and insults and Walt pulling away and calling his dad “that man” to the nurse. Kind of the filet of 2000s Brooklyn family dramedies.
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i’m fascinated by this movie. i honestly felt like i experienced a chunk of the parents behaviors and kept seeing people i knew in them which was weird. i feel so much hurt for walt. he is also such a dick. i’m happy he finally looked at the exhibit for himself instead of hearing everything from everyone else. i really deeply enjoyed the use of plagiarism as a metaphor. poor frank. constantly ignored or overlooked. i keep returning to how…
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AAley 8 月 20, 2026
i’m definitely a philistine
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Nice one brother
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Everyone is such a piece of shit to the point where it’s doesn’t even feel like a character but a caricature of pretentious fucks. Also the dad calls himself an intellectual and is pretentious as shit but pronounces Godards last name fully rather than putting his throat on the end of the name
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The Squid and the Whale came highly recommended by the Moose, who, as it turns out, is one smart Fox.
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I kept thinking of Mike Leigh films, and that in comparison this didn’t have the courage to go full-earnest, it hid behind cynicism and irony a lot (like I would do) and whilst it was funny and sharp, I don’t think it needed to be that funny or that sharp, the heartfelt and personal stuff was better. It’s like when I make cottage pie and end up overloading it with garlic and chilli just to feel something and it tastes good but I end up wishing I’d had the courage to focus on the fundamentals and trust the bbc goodfoods recipe
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Good.movie to get some perspective on divorce and grown ass adults
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Hhmmkay then 8 月 20, 2026
i came into this one relatively blind, expecting a lighthearted comedy, and got a jagged, raw drama instead. i can’t say i “enjoyed” watching this in the traditional sense, but i was mesmerized all the same. a fascinating character study, really want to watch again sometime.
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Eewanshand27 8 月 20, 2026
Spent a good portion of this accidentally throwing mini m&m’s at the gorgeous woman next to me: true cinema Also this has got me right back into London Wainwright ❤️
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So many unanswered questions.. why was that kid like that.. did it get solved? and most importantly where did puss cat go? 🐈⬛
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Laura Linney really makes every film she’s in better imo. That gorgeous gray cat omg I hope it’s okay. This is so real … shoutout to all children of divorce out there!
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Mystery movie at the Prince charles is great, would recommend
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Nnotatallsydney 8 月 19, 2026
only felt happiness when laura linney was on screen
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I wonder what that little kid’s favourite type of whale is…
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Movies fuckin really good
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freaky ass family it’s hard to love movies that make me hate almost every character, but I have to admire its ability to do so this is sort of like the version of The Royal Tenanbaums that lives in hell, but sometimes it can be fun to visit hell for 80 minutes
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It’s like Little Miss Sunshine except more kafkaesque (I’ve read and know what that means, trust)
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What a great little film! This a darkly comic movie. In parts it has laugh out loud moments, deeply sad and some oddly disturbing and uncomfortable undertones. The central performances from Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are stellar. These performances are ably supported by a very young Jesse Eisenberg. These film soundtrack is super cool. Almost near perfection.
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Mystery Movie again
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second mystery film at the prince charles! it goes to show I will give any amount of money to take away the crippling decision of choosing a film (i probably have a weak handshake as well) despite very unlikable characters, some pretty gross imagery and an unbalanced relationship focus, something felt so painfully real about the characters (played amazingly by the core cast) and the story of this that i truly can’t give it any lower of a rating! always…
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when i saw wes anderson was a producer i was like wow that’s so obvious, it’s such a pretty film 😋. also such an accurate (in my experience) of how petty parents are during a divorce
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my dad likes it too
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Another great time with the boys and a PCC mystery movie! Been meaning to get around to this one but never have so was great when it ended up being this one. A great movie, really found this one compelling. It’s uncomfortably funny and well written, really feels like a pocket in time with a small bunch of characters and the struggles that are dealing with as a family but Noah Baumbach has always been great at writing dialogue and…
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Kkas 8 月 19, 2026
incredible film but the worst cinema experience of my entire life. the man next to me smelled so badly that i had to sniff my bottle of perfume for the entire screening and fan myself at various points. the lady on his other side was holding her cardigan to her nose the whole screening. i genuinely thought i was going to die because of the stench.
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It was pretty good. Saw the Wes Anderson influence. Lots of blowing air out my nose comedy and the dad pissed me off so much oh my god.
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Ssaykaty 8 月 19, 2026
Billy Baldwin’s performance is fantastic and a standout – a sentence that has most likely never been uttered before nor since! Mystery movie, on 35mm @ the Prince Charles Cinema
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I think they should try therapists instead of shrinks this time
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loved and hated lol truly a horror movie on a) having a husband and b) only having boy children
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mainly made me think about this quote from bonnie burstow. “often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. they exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. they agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. this collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate.”
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Every morning I wake up, tears of joy running down my face, and I leap up and punch the air, knowing that I’ll never have a husband or sons. I “needed” to see the mystery movie at the PCC to kill time after work before going to The Nickel, and I was not disappointed. I remember Becky and Shadi talking about this film at school and I’m not sure how I never saw it until now. Maybe I would have…
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this is some weird ass family
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Good surprise film coz I don’t think I’d have watched otherwise. Unusual but good
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No squids or whales were harmed in the macking of this film. Also watching films reduces the risk of reading a book covered in spunk!
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I made this movie. Why? I feel as if I could have made it. But I didn’t, you might be saying. That’s beside the point. A perfect screenplay? Quite possibly. Regardless, it is minor Baumbach in my mind. Baumbach’s Films 9/10 Films P.S. I can’t wait to whip out “Baumbach was a predecessor of mine. He was the fillet of the domestic narrative” one day.
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This early Baumbach is clunkier than what I like about his older work, with drier dialogue and stiffer, more unlikable characters, but despite that, it works nicely through a brute force of focus on the stifling environments, especially as the parents separate and build their own households. We rarely experience the outside unless if it an area that can be made to feel “cramped”, such as a narrow street or a park with lots of foliage or a caged tennis…
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Let’s be clear here: credits hit at 77 minutes. People like to talk about the naive simplicity and potential immaturity of artist’s early works where they attempt to spike the volleyball every scene in this sort of naked, raw way. But, man, I love it. This movie just feels like Baumbach shaving every moment down to a knife’s edge of precision, cutting all extraneous nonsense and just giving us the highlight reel of 1980’s Brooklyn family dysfunction. The at-the-time shocking…
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This movie was not easy to watch. And my simple mind was not happy with the ending and its lack of… resolution. Probably wouldn’t watch it again, but something about it makes me feel satisfied enough that I watched it.
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short, but affable. a peek into the baumbach’s childhood, one that far too many children have to endure. it is heartbreaking, but also somewhat whimsically warm, a fine balance. a delightful exploration of intertwining relationships featuring a young eisenberg.
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i spent the entire movie thinking “god these people are so awful and pretentious” and then during the terribly sad ending i recognized a reference to godard’s breathless and got so proud of myself that i stopped being sad and thought “oh no what if the awful pretentious person is me?!”
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childhood
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16 years of life captured in under 90 minutes
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Noah Baumbach knows how to make gut punching drama about how separation can impact a family!
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By far the worst season of Squid Game to date. I was 23 and living in a studio in Park Slope when this first came out. The film succeeds wonderfully at transmitting the feel of the place. With nods to predecessors Annie Hall and the Tenenbaums, one of my favorite tennis films. Mr. Baumbauch at his most succinct and poignant. Did Mr. Eisenberg ever stop playing Walt? I think not. One thing this film really captures is that so much of childhood is watching your parents do things you don’t fully understand. Ivan could have been a champion…
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I basically agree with what Karsten wrote on this one. The characters throughout the movie felt like assholes for the sake of assholes they elicited no sympathy, maybe at times for the mother but barely, they didn’t develop, change, grow, or learn. Time and time again things happened and every single character acted basically as you would expect them to. I understand that one could say this movie was realistic in it’s pessimism, some people are assholes, and some family…
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Un film vraiment fantastique. Une ambiance 80’s extraordinaire, on est transportés dans le temps, les acteurs donnent l’impression de former une vraie famille. Le sujet est traité de manière simple et à la fois fouillée. C’est un très beau film qui touche vraiment au fond du coeur
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I feel like I’m being gaslit by all these reviews saying the writing is good. I’ve tried the Noah Baumbach films and they’re really just not for me. I guess I’m a philistine.
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Dah lama nontonnya tp baru bgomongin lg sm bul. Menyakitkan… magnificent…. 😬😬
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Like it’s good. But it’s Jesse Eisenberg.
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GGarlock 8 月 17, 2026
As a child of divorce, this is probably the most accurate divorce movie with lines that hit hard every time I see it. I used to think it was only the dad being an asshole and now. Everyone is complicated. Also uses the one true good song on “The Wall” to also show how juvenile that record is AND solidified my love affair with TD “Love on a Real Train” with its perfect use.
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I love movies where you don’t get to know the full story of the central thing that’s going on and you have to see it from an outside perspective. We only see Bernard and Joan fight when the kids are around, and we pick up on the truth as the kids do, but we won’t ever fully know it. I love how Joan is basically on her own journey throughout this movie that we are blocked from fully understanding because…
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Lliv 8 月 17, 2026
proof it can be hard to watch something when no one’s likeable but i love noah baumbach so i’m sure it’s my fault
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Big ole chefs kiss for this one
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going through a pink floyd phase, a breakup, and i’ve had reoccurring dreams about huge whale displays in museums ever since i saw a whale skeleton at the natural history museum of chicago when i was a child. this was embarrassingly relatable. wish there was less cum tho. 🙏
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New York only exists because it manifested itself after being crafted in my dreams.
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Outstanding, sad, funny, tale of family breakup with great performances all round.
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My hatred of Jesse Eisenberg is still alive and well.
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Need to drink a few beers with Frankie Cosmos’ kid brother
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Pretty good, my brother
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watched this movie to feel better after watching Happiness 1998 and it really helped
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un piacevole prequel di the social network (2010)!!!
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Such a raw film on the impact of divorce on kids and view on relationships. Both parents are immature, flawed, and selfish.
- Synopsis
- Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents' divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.
- Director
- Noah Baumbach
- Writer
- Noah Baumbach
- Studio
- Original Media, American Empirical Pictures, Peter Newman/Interal, Ambush Entertainment
- Country
- USA
- Language
- English
- Year
- 2005
- Runtime
- 81 mins
- USA24 Jan 2005
- USA05 Oct 2005
- Germany11 May 2006
- Italy09 Jun 2006
- France12 Jul 2006
- Japan02 Dec 2006
- Ireland07 Apr 2006
- South Korea02 Jun 2006
- Hungary27 Jun 2006
- Romania30 Jun 2006
- Belgium05 Oct 2005
- UK05 Dec 2016
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