Noah Baumbach's THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED) with Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Elizabeth Marvel, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson

Looks like an uncomfortable family comedy a la The Squid and the Whale 30 years on. Smaller roles for Rebecca Miller, Adam Driver, Judd Hirsch, Candice Bergen.

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2017/daily/watch-noah-baumbach-talks-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-at-nyff55/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_h2I2L4VsY

Sandler is a serious hurdle for me

adam sandler sucks

ha otm xp

Baumbach kinda sucks shit too let's be real

naaah, that last one in Brooklyn w/ Stiller was the first miss

I like some more than others but nothing has been outright terrible imo.

Greenberg and Frances Ha were both misses imo

This one also has music by Randy Newman, and cinematography by Robbie Ryan, the guy who did I, Daniel Blake and all 4 of Andrea Arnold's features.

Looking forward to this. Jews!

Ronald Peet ... James
Jordan Carlos ... waiter
Victor Cruz ... doctor
Germar Terrell Gardner ... Paul's nurse
Kareem Williams ... nurse's aide

can't wait to find out what service industry James is an employee of

I miss trackhe preview after learning that Sandler isn't killed in the first three minutes.

*the

I can't think of any other comedian whose schtick curdled so quickly and so thoroughly, his limitations painfully and regularly exposed. Yet his career continues to thrive. When he first came on SNL I thought he was great, this kind of anti-comedy, format-puncturing stuff, but after maybe the third film the charm had thoroughly evaporated and it was clear he just has no real ideas or depth or cleverness or anything, an offhanded laziness smothers everything he does.

Looking forward to this. Jews!

I don't know what it said about me that I read this as "Looking forward to this. Jesus!"

I thought people liked Sandler's stabs at 'real' acting (all I can think of is Punch Drunk Love?).

yeah, i can't believe that was counted as such

I thought people liked Sandler's stabs at 'real' acting (all I can think of is Punch Drunk Love?).

He is absolutely amazing in PDL. He is awful in Reign Over Me. Don’t know of any other ‘serious’ roles he’s done off the top of my head. But man, what a genius casting choice & serious gamble by PTA with PDL. Sandler is just perfect in that movie.

Funny People
a few of his own shitty movies are "dramatic" roles iirc, like The Shoemaker

PDL was horrendous

I don't know what it said about me that I read this as "Looking forward to this. Jesus!"

I instantly thought of
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.pastemagazine.com%2Fwww%2Farticles%2Fbroad_City_jews_on_a_plane_main.jpg&f=1

PDL is indeed a horrible film

just thinking of those new age transitions alone *shudder*

Oh yeah I hated Funny People. I get why ppl might hate PDL, I love those transitions so much, but as with most love stories, walks a thin line btwn treacly schmaltz & well, capturing what it’s like to be in love. I find it very, very moving & his performance very powerful. Watched it a lot as a preteen/teenager so that might have something to do with it.

the soundtrack though

xp

Yes! I listen to “Tabla” from that all the time.

anyway i haven't seen altecocker Hoffman in awhile, he's getting 'award buzz'

i liked both PDL and Funny People. the guy is capable of acting in an interesting manner. but 99% of everything he's done post-SNL is garbage and his stupid netflix movie about indians really burned me on him so I'll have to think twice about watching this eventhough Baumbach is pretty solid IMO.

Funny People is of course a risible slog but AS was decent in it iirc

Funny People was OK and at times cold-eyed until Eric Bana and his family enter the picture.

^^^

the last third (ie, from the Beatles cover on) completely sink the picture

Title, subject matter and cast border on Baumbach self-parody.

or just his wheelhouse

yeah I guess I'm just bored of his wheelhouse. His films are fine. They're well done. I just don't need to see any more of them.

this is irredeemable shit & you are a sucker if you like this guy

When the movie (finally) gets to the hospital, the actors get to demonstrate their chemistry; before then, though, Baumbach's beats are off, with lots of expository dialogue clumsily delivered.

Sandler is the least objectionable element.

Yikes

yea this was predictably disappointing, tho I do like & defend baumbach generally

I know they've made a couple movies together, but Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman have no chemistry.

It's flawed and easy to make fun of but I really enjoyed watching this. The lunch scene w/Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman was great.

It felt like 'cool daughter' wish fulfillment though.

The lunch scene w/Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman was great.

the bit of business involving the wine and the next table over

loved this

it puts together elements from all his other films, i think its really layered & moving & complete

haven't seen it in years but i didn't know people hated punch drunk love

hoffman was on Charlie rose w/ sandler & baumbach & complemented sandler's acting in PDL & said something like it was a great portrayal of someone w bipolar disorder

I haven't seen PDL since it was in theaters and I remember liking it, but coolly.

yeah my memory is similar, that i was like, yeah, that was good, but not feeling especially strongly about it

This is great though. I feel like it ties together margot at the wedding, squid & the whale, while we're young, just a lot of thematic stuff he's worked w/ before just in a more completely rendered package

im not a big frances ha guy though

you might v well dislike it, based on the amount we disagree typically, but its doubtful your issue will be Sandler

I've enjoyed all the Baumbach movies I've seen (which I think is all of them?), the one that stood out as the weakest for me is Miss America and it's misguided screwball detour in the back half.

Sandler was the least objectionable part of the movie. There wasn't much objectionable about it -- it was a misfire. The material wasn't fresh and the rhythms all wrong (and I don't believe Dustin Hoffman as an actor anymore). But Baumbach will return.

this was leaden even by the standards of the guy who made While We're Young

^nuts

I liked Hoffman's old-manisms like "The Mets don't want it" (clicks off TV). As for clemenza's Rain Man ref, it makes no sense to me, but what else is new.

But it's fine -- Baumbach will return.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, October 31, 2017

But Baumbach will return.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, November 27, 2017 4:37 PM

You've gotta stop talking to Cubby Broccoli in those seances.

the rhythms all wrong (and I don't believe Dustin Hoffman as an actor anymore).

What should the rhythms have been like? Vaudeville? Squid? I liked the shifts of tone even when they didn't work (this was a bigger problem in Mistress America). Hoffman seemed very plausibly like a number of terrible fathers and academics/artists I've encountered first- or secondhand. Why isn't he believable, because he's been a movie star for 50 years?

The NYC MoMA audience reacted with laughter when the doctor said in consultation with the family that they should prepare to say, "I love you, I forgive you, forgive me, thank you, goodbye." I wonder if that'd be a yuk line in less jaded burgs, but as a result I found the recurrence of those words devastating, esp with the cut-closer edits Baumbach used.

I agree the hospital scenes were the best parts.

i liked the whole thing, like if hed made squid & whale after margot at the wedding

i probably said that already

Not to say that Jeff Daniels does an awful job, but Hoffman is better at being whatever exact same character that Jeff Daniels plays in the other one in the same way Jim Carrey is better at being the same character Jeff Daniels plays in Dumb and Dumber.

The NYC MoMA audience reacted with laughter when the doctor said in consultation with the family that they should prepare to say, "I love you, I forgive you, forgive me, thank you, goodbye."

I laughed too.

The funniest scene: in the restaurant.

apparently those words are part of some bestselling formula

greenberg was so bad i kinda want to never watch his movies. ben stiller played a carpenter! i'm so sure.

francis ha was only good cuzza gerwig and she probably wrote the best stuff for it.

sundance woody allens usually suck. they don't know anything. they have no wisdom.

when greta gerwig breaks up with that dude i hope she has a wonderful career as a writer and director though. she's got the stuff.

PN: Disagree strongly about Jeff Daniels in The Squid and the Whale--I think he's amazing, one of my favourite performances of the past couple of decades. I find his self-absorption and casual rudeness and superciliousness entirely convincing (and like nothing I've ever seen Daniels do). I didn't believe the Hoffman character for a second; all I could see was Dustin Hoffman doing Dustin Hoffman schtick.

otm

never watched it more than in passing but that is my impression of what daniels character is like on that hbo sorkin show

Daniels does turn in a good performance but Hoffman IS the self-absorbed, casually rude, supercilious guy who is schticky.
Daniels "dumbness" is also more believable in Dumb and Dumber, but that just means he hasn't committed to the character as Jim Carrey has.

I mean if the argument is the more off-target you are from what Noah Baumbach intended, the better, I wouldn't protest.

you guys have to see jeff daniels in Godless on Netflix. so good. Godless definitely better than The Squid & The Whale. though Godless is over 7 hours long so maybe that's unfair.

francis ha was only good cuzza gerwig and she probably wrote the best stuff for it.

when greta gerwig breaks up with that dude i hope she has a wonderful career as a writer and director though. she's got the stuff.

c'mon, not giving NB any credit for (whatever) good films GG has done with him isn't fair

greta gerwig is unimpeachable & noah baumbach is bad is a really boring stance

don't you mean "corny"

anyway I watched this and thought it was fine, engaging and funny where it needed to be but not up there with his best. Cast were all fine, even Sandler. There were some minor things that bugged me, like the lawn argument/fight, Matthew's phone interactions w his 5yo son, and the strange editing choices (ranging from abrupt cuts to fade-outs to title cards, all to no discernible purpose that just made the pacing feel a little wonky). A lot of deadpan laughs though.

greta gerwig is unimpeachable & noah baumbach is bad is a really boring stance

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Tuesday, November 28, 2017 4:34 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

they both are huge mediocrities is my booming stance

you'll change your mind once you watch Lady Bird.

trailer makes it look extremely rote but i will see it

Don't ever watch trailers! I don't.

some of us aren't accredited bloggers and sit through that shit when we pay

uh no you come in late – that's what I do. Just walk in 15 minutes after the posted time. At worst you'll get the last 40 seconds of the last trailer.

sometimes the theaters here fill up, as the tumbleweeds blow through the South Florida 'plex

"accredited bloggers"

Wow.

I go to shows before noon. No way am I fighting evening crowds.

they both are huge mediocrities is my booming stance

― -_- (jim in vancouver), Wednesday, November 29, 2017 11:36 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nahhh

I thought people didn't go to movie theaters anymore

Everyone who's not an accredited blogger.

I'm a little surprised Netflix bothered with theater distro

they're in the business now, dude. Prestige, so it's not just another fucking TV thing for normies.

distributing the imminent Woody Allen film, then a dozen next year.

no sorry, the Woody is Amazon....

https://qz.com/1104262/netflix-will-release-more-movies-next-year-than-disney-and-other-studios-combined/

it was financed by Netflix

No, it was independently financed; Netflix bought distribution rights after the fact. One suspects that Baumbach made theatrical release a condition of sale.

basically, Shakey Fuck Off Part CCLXVII

Um what did i do now idgi

Given that Baumbach won a bunch of awards/plaudits (incl an Oscar nomination) for Squid and the Whale, which this film most closely resembles, why the hell would he settle for a streaming release?

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000876/awards

btw he will be presenting a 35mm print of Meyerowitz in NY this weekend, and also this all-time great

http://metrograph.com/film/film/264/letter-from-an-unknown-woman

Way into this. What an ensemble. Seems like a MoMA audience ^^ would be the ideal crowd to see this with.

guess I should watch this. interesting how his star has been eclipsed by Gerwig now.

A few years ago, this probably would have been the Oscar contender and Lady Bird would've been on HBO.

Lady Bird is fresher, though. Whereas here -- if you want to see New Yorkers trying to find parking spots, Squid and the Whale 2, this delivers.

Also am a sucker for movies/etc about the change in status symbols in NYC culture: this, Oh, Hello in its own way, While We're Young (more stacks VHS tapes, as here), and so on.

does flopson like 'margot at the wedding'? curious

― Listen to my homeboy Fantano (D-40), Tuesday, October 31, 2017 1:25 AM (seven months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya this one is his best imo

Seeing this a second time, I just love the structure of the whole thing, how it takes so long to get all the siblings in the same room.