noah baumbach semi autobiographical tale of divorce in the mid 1980 in brooklyn be funny and touching and rank right up there with the best work of woody allen or sophia coppola a superb bourgeois cinema where we be treat to the neurotic underbelly of over educate and over indulged and upwardly mobile and urban middle class family . this a wonderful film imbue with a fantastic sense of place and time and small detail in which the viewer can find great delight ( like the hilarious scene where jeff daniel take his teenage son and the kid new girlfriend to see david lynch blue velvet instead of the first choice short circuit or the closing shot of the actual squid fight a whale at the nyc musueum of natural history ) . jeff daniel be slyly funny a the cheapskate and snobbish father who be once the toast of the literary world and be now just get by on teaching . laura linney be again perfection ( when be she not and really ) a the mother just start her own brilliant literary career and who be a bit too open about her sexuality with her child . while the parent bicker over custody ( even the cat get to skate between two home ) and the old son act out by plagiarize pink floyd in a talent show and nervous encounter with girl ( one of whom be his father live in student or lover play by the always allure anna paquin ) and and the young son ( a very good owen kline real life son of kevin kline and pheobe cates ) turn to drink alone and public masturbation . it all a awkward and real and and devastatingly funny a it sound . a great script and even well act highlight this tale of a family on the skid . every member of the family be brilliantly bring to life and even though they be act in their own flaw and selfish and self annihilating and myopic way and they still endear themselves to the audience like they be our own family . bottom line represent only a philistine would turn down the chance to enjoy the squid and the whale .