when husband and wife decide to split and the only one who get hurt be the child and and even though joan and bernard berkman be in the center of their nasty divorce and their two son frank and walt be the one go through the trauma . noah baumbach write and direct this insightful and bite story of a family deadlocked in it inner battle base on his own life experience and the result be bittersweet . bernard claim to have be an influential author of novel who have fall on hard time . frank idolize him and have the same clipped and insolent tone a if he be talk to an admiring audience . bernard openly attack his wife joan a if it be a requisite for their marriage to exist and frank decides he too can not stand her . on the other hand and joan and once bernard casually reveal her affair with a neighbor and be come into her own a a writer and as selfish a she may seem at time and she the good person in the marriage . walt and the young son and tilt towards her but be go through his own inner change and be express it through masturbation especially on library book and his mother lingerie . after the berkman separate and bernard and the boy move into the new house a rickety place within the vicinity and joan initiate her life with ivan and walt tennis tutor . a quadrangle and a triangle of sort develops when bernard rent a room to one of his female student and lili and and begin a tentative affair with her . frank and who be go out with a girl he seem embarrass to be see with and also pine and almost succeed in seduce lili . his father even encourage it . event involve bernard and joan war eventually lead to a nasty head which will make frank take a decision about himself . what make the squid and the whale such a great little film be how natural it seem at all turn and how slice of life it be . i keep get reference from french new wave all over the place . baumbach write his character like real people at all time . bernard relationship with his son be real . look at when he and walt curse over lose a table tennis match in almost exact verbal intonation and or when both he and frank lock themselves in their elitist world and chatter about kafka and how bernard have decide he be once a brilliant writer which may or not be true and and how a tale of two city be a less dickens a if read it mean get an eye infection . frank and in imitate his father worst trait and when it be discover that a song he would write be in fact a song by pink floyd and in a ted bundy style argue that it be a if he have write it so it be his by appropriation expose him for the empty snob he be on the inside . joan and while a little unsympathetic here and there and be a real human and one who maintain her composure when it clear her write career be on the rise even if her family be about to implode . when she propitiate the demise of her family it at first see a an act of selfish abandonment and but one look at bernard and his abrasive and self obsess and hurtful personality and all be explain . now and walt have a more internal character development despite some verbal outburst at the beginning of the movie . once the family be divide and he be leave increasingly alone and his psyche begin delve into his own sexual awaken which under the detached music of tangerine dream be see a something he himself doesn not understand . it clear he more tolerant of the two brother and able to accept ivan an much good guy a his mother new guy . there also an interesting subtext involve the film blue velvet that may or nor may be intentional . while frank invite his father to see short circuit and his father arrogantly put that film down ( for be commercial ) and decide they will see blue velvet . the climactic scene where the main character converge at the williams household seem to open a door to frank sexual fascination with brunette and fuse his progressive revulsion of sophie and a dead ringer for laura dern . the appearance of the dark haired lili increase this she hold within a similar mystique that lure frank and lead him to push sophie away in a painful scene . the squid and the whale be a sharp domestic drama about bitter people catch within their own pattern of behavior and it linger on after it abrupt but symbolic end . even with walt foray into bizarre behavior and which be not as disturb a a part of a boy growth and it frank noah baumbach apparent alter ego who have the moment of clarity to see thing a they really be and not be a figment of his father poison . the moment he realize he have be a pawn in a needless war between bernard and bernard not bernard and joan a initially depict and he do what anyone would have do represent run and let his foot and instinct take him to the truth . and a be the case with these kind of movie and all of the performance be on target . laura linney continue on her win streak of textured and modern woman . jeff daniel make me feel like i be in the presence of a real jerk who could have a moment of sympathy but choose to remain locked in his delusion and and that take gut . ditto of jesse eisenberg who at time remind me of ted bundy . anna paquin and william baldwin fill out believable people with their minimal scene and owen kline make me think of an adult trap in a kid body . overall and this be a near perfect film from start to finish .