The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

[Keebleman]

Just watched this on Netflix.  Well, it actually took me several goes to get through it, spread over a week.  It's a film from Noah Baumbach; I enjoyed The Squid and the Whale but haven't seen anything else of his.

There is a small sub-genre of filmmaking that could be called New York Jewish Intellectual, pretty much created by Woody Allen and certainly finding its fullest expression in him.  I used to love these films when I was younger as I imagined myself being part of that world.  I don't love them so much now, partly due to bitterness at finding myself 51 and very much not part of that world, but also because they're so bloody clichéd. 

This film is very much of this sub-genre.  It has quirky intertitles; characters who, if they aren't professional artists, are very proficient in one artistic discipline at least; scenes set in art galleries and smart restaurants; sudden smash-cuts which are so predictable they don't deserve the name.  "Is this my copy of Buddenbrooks?" is an actual line of dialogue in the movie.

When it's not being ostentatious the direction is often incredibly stilted.  In a busy conversation around a dinner table the camera is always on whoever is speaking; when someone else starts we cut to them, then cut away in turn when they stop.  The result is as choppy as that beer garden scene in Bohemian Rhapsody everyone was complaining about.  Other scenes are badly misjudged.  There's a fight scene that is inexplicable in dramatic terms and hopeless in execution.
 
It's not a disaster.  The performances are almost all good, esp Emma Thompson, the characters are quite engaging, there's an amusing scene where people trying to vandalize a car find it's harder to do than they expected.  But it's a movie that seems to come from other movies, not life, and as it seems to think it's got something to say about life, that's a problem.

[Shit Good Nose]

Not seen it yet, but have it in the list.

I read one review that capsuled it as "mumblecore in adulthood".

I've seen most of Baumbach's films and they all have that vibe of all the characters being smugly superior even if they're damaged in one way or another.  Frances Ha's rep bewilders me - it annoyed the tits off me and I intensely disliked every single character in it, not least Frances herself.

He also has a LOT of characters who are lazy fucking bums that in the real world would probably be homeless drug addicts, but in Baumbach world they still manage to live in nice apartments and have nice things and always land on their feet.  I know they're just films, and that sort of thing wouldn't normally bother me in a work of fiction, but done in that Baumbach/Dunham/O'Russell style it really rubs me up the wrong way.

Still, I'm always up for Ben Stiller in pretty much anything - drama or shit low-brow comedy - and I still like Dustin Hoffman.

[greenman]

I've seen most of Baumbach's films and they all have that vibe of all the characters being smugly superior even if they're damaged in one way or another.  Frances Ha's rep bewilders me - it annoyed the tits off me and I intensely disliked every single character in it, not least Frances herself.

The trailer ripping off Dennis Lavant cavorting down the street to Modern Love was off putting enough.