Margot at the Wedding is Noah Baumbach's latest movie - it's quite similar to his 2005 movie, the Squid and the Whale which was a kind of devastating film about selfish and irresponsible people. Margot at the Wedding is also about outrageously insensitive and irresponsible people - Margot (Nicole Kidman) and her sister, Pauline (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Margot and her son, Claude, have gone to the family estate on some Bershired locale for Pauline's marriage to a depressive and anger-prone doofus (Jack Black, who's wonderfully cast. I love seeing him in more serious roles!) It's mainly a character study, and mainly a horrifying one, in that everyone is hateful to each other and there are children involved, but parts are really hilarious, and for the most part I enjoyed it, because they're all great actors and I thought the performances were terrific. I can't really think of anyone I would recommend it to, though. My favorite Baumbach film is Kicking and Screaming (1995, not the Will Farrell/soccer thing), which is also about insensitive irresponsible people, but they don't have kids and just got out of college so who cares?
Many of his films have a very autobiographic air to them (apparently Squid and The Whale is closely based on his childhood experiences) - who knows, maybe Wes Anderson-style he's going to keep on making movies about his daddy issues but I hope to see some more variety from him in the future, because I think he's a good film maker.
Speaking of, his next project is a collaboration with Wes Anderson, an animated The Fantastic Mr. Fox, by Roald Dahl.
1 comment:
Oh BALLS!
If I had known that we were seeing a movie by the same asshole that made the Squid and the Whale, I would have self-medicated. :P
That guy is the most self-indulgent bastard...
Sigh.
I do like Jennifer Jason Leigh, though.
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