Lack of good storyline.

Absolutely amazing

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

So bad. So very, very bad. The tale of a family is disarray; the mother an insipid up-and-coming author, the father a narcissistic, has-been writer, and their two pathetic and very disturbed sons. Painfully acted, despite a wonderful cast. Poorly written cringe-worthy scenes of shallow people behaving badly. There is a Woody Allenesque taint to this movie in the worst possible way. Painful. The only redeeming aspects are the street scenes of New York city neighbourhoods that are far beyond the economic reach of most people, which essentially amounts to nothing more than real estate porn. Everyone involved in this movie should be very ashamed. My advice to the writers, actors, director etc.: do not include this movie on your Curriculum Vitae.

I thought the movie was pretty sad that we realise the parents (Daniels and Linney) split up and the fact, their boys were affected by this. I was really alarmed when Owen Kline's character was drinking alcohol at his young age because of this, I couldn't get over that they didn't suspect him getting a heart attack, not Jeff Daniels character as the father! It does reflect on some children who experience family breakdowns and trying to cope around the situation. I have to admit, there were some scenes seeing the boy Frank drinking alcohol, was very hard to watch. The movie was also shocking as well like, I didn't honestly expect to see Anna Paquin involved on this! I only found out that herself and Daniels acted again on this for the first time since "Fly Away Home" 10 years earlier. It was surreal that Paquin kissed Daniels and I still thought of them as film dad/daughter. They were a pretty good couple anyway so Im not complaining here lol! Although there was some sad and funny moments in this film, it was actually quite good! I give this movie a rating of 8/10!

........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL For dyed in the wool fans of European cinema, The Squid and the Whale, an independent production, Grand Prize winner at the "Sundance" Film Festival, has much more in common with films from the old continent than with those huge budget Hollywood productions. IMDb lists its budget as 1.5 Million, most certainly paltry, especially when compared to the 100 to 200 million dollar behemoths that abound in LA-LA-LAND! So if the European style is to your liking, we guarantee that "Squid" will truly enchant you! To justify my initial assertion, let's just analyze SQUID for a moment: A) No CGI effects, No car chases or crashes, and no 100 Decibel Explosions! B) SQUID is highly character-driven C) SQUID is very heavy on intense, highly focused dialog D) SQUID's characters have almost no physical contact, but engage in relentless psychological arm-wrestling! E) SQUID resorts to NO cinematic gimmicks of any kind, whatsoever! F) Considering that both Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney appear in SQUID, with its minuscule budget, it cannot be anything other than a TRUE labor of love! If the above list hits some of your cinematic hot buttons… You really MUST SEE Squid! If you are unphased…DON'T!!!!!…Simple as that!....8 STARS! ENJOY!/DISFRUTELA! Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!

It's 1986 Brooklyn. Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels) is a petty, self-important writer on the decline. His son Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) worships him. His wife Joan (Laura Linney) is divorcing him and gaining success as a writer. His younger son Frank questions his superiority. Joan starts going out with tennis pro Ivan (William Baldwin). Walt pushes aside his girlfriend Sophie as he falls for Bernard's student and possible girlfriend Lili (Anna Paquin).I don't know if Noah Baumbach is presenting something from his life. All I know is that the father is unrelentingly annoying. He makes it hard to watch this movie sometimes. Walt also presents his own problems but Bernard's ugly personality overshadows everything. He takes away any humor or joy from the film.