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

Xp

Came to mind too, but probably only because the Raiders ending (and its connection to Citizen Kane) was like just discussed on ILX.

Thought this was nice and frequently pretty funny. Not sure how I’d rank his stuff, but I guess this would be somewhere in the middle for me.

Baumbach's derivative take on the Royal Tenenbaums, with Ben Stiller playing the exact same character. Still I kinda liked it

this is way more like his own other films than it is RT

i've been on a roll of agreeing with deej on matters of tv and film but this was a massive THUMBS DOWN

i'm not sure I've ever seen a movie that digs into half-sibling issues as much as this one did. As a half-sibling myself that aspect of the movie gave me a lot to think about.

does flopson like 'margot at the wedding'? curious

haven't seen

i want to know what you think

what didn't you like about this?

i'm going to watch all baumbachlats i haven't seen (i think its most of them) and give a full rundown soon

found the dialogue clunky as hell, most of the comedy fell flat (i LOLd at the scene where they watch his daughter's video) (the arrogance of casting stiller and sandler in Serious Roles and then having dustin hoffman and emma thompson botch it as comic relief put me off), didn't felt i loved any of the characters

yeah see margot at the wedding. i think you're looking for this to be a comedy in a more purposeful way than what its actually going for

i don't think i've ever seen a less convincing drunk than Emma Thompson in this

I found the movie unconvincing, period, despite a couple of acerbic moments.

But it's fine -- Baumbach will return.

Didn't like this much at all. First time I've felt like Baumbach was making a bad Noel Baumbach-type film; that's probably been there since The Squid and the Whale (still far and away my favourite), but I thought he was always able to keep that under control. I liked Grace Van Patten, and Sandler's sort of interesting (even though the bursts of rage are right out of Punch-Drunk Love). Couldn't stand Hoffman (Kael's "humping one note on a piano for two hours" comes to mind), and Ben Stiller scowling and being nasty felt overly familiar--was he a comedian at one time? Van Patten's first film was funny...or at least the image of dad and aunt and grandfather watching it.

That Kael quote is from her Rain Man review. It occurs to me that Hoffman bothered me so much because he really is playing Meyerowitz as Raymond Babbitt. Which, in view of the fact that Meyerowitz is supposed to be a somewhat renowned sculptor (unappreciated or otherwise), and that he considers his wife to be his intellectual inferior, is a really strange decision on Hoffman's part.

the blood pressure is getting read in india part in the hospital was off the money. As someone who has worked in health care for many years, this comment makes no sense. Liked this though for the most part

This is on netflix streaming for some reason. I resisted.

That’s how it was released. It’s good, imo

it was financed by Netflix

can't bring myself to care about it

Despite a few bumps, this strikes me as the best of the 7 NB-directed films I've seen, nosing out Frances Ha and The Squid and the Whale (Dad Was a Prick, Part I). Sandler is excellent and actually moved me to tears, though I now expect to go back to ignoring his career.

This struck me throughout as a (generally) comic version of one of Arthur Miller's prime family tragedies, before I realized that was Miller's daughter playing the woman Sandler is pining for. (And the only Willy Loman I've seen on the stage is Hoffman.)

sorry about all the striking, I should read my posts more often

I needed a bump to finish it.`

casting Sandler AND Hirsch w/out driving me out of the theater is a miraculous achievement

pretty much agree with how you feel about this morbs with the exception of it being his best

you know what kind of family you're in when the first meal scene is shark

Baumbach did a Q&A at MoMA yesterday, said he had a laughing fit the day he was describing the student film to the actors as their reactions were being shot.

showing in 35mm near me for a couple of weeks, might go

yeah, wow – this was leaden even by the standards of the guy who made While We're Young. Then again, Frances Ha is only half Baumbach's movie.

Judd Hirsch was one of the things that drove me up the wall here. It'd take me a while to find the right words, but there's just something so cliched about the way he plays his character.

imo up there w his best, which is for me mistress america & margot at the wedding & squid (not as into greenberg or frances ha, although they're both good and fine, though those seem like his most commercially successful)

i had to tap out at the precious twee piano song

Greenberg was a bomb, though. Maybe he intended commercial success?

i guess im judging 'success' by 'made noise in the press' & I feel like i remember a big wave of publicity for greenberg & frances ha that werent replicated after

huh not sure what to make of the spread of opinions here, can't decide if I should violate my NO SANDLERS rule for this

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