slow day at work, so i'll recount the things that impressed me most from the interview w/ Noah Baumbach on the Squid and the Whale DVD. If you haven't seen or did not obsessively love this movie, skip reading this entry. Anyway, unfortunately I thought that there were more flaws in the movie revealed from the interview than there were interesting themes elaborated. Or not flaws, but things that could have made the movie even better. Well I haven't finished watching it, but i'll go from what I saw.
First with the good. Baumbach talked about the role that brooklyn or specifically Park Slope played in the movie, and how Park Slope circa 1986, when the movie is set, differs from modern day Park Slope. I thought this was pretty interesting, because I had always sort of wondered why the movie needed to be set in the 80's, as the only references to the time period are passing cultural references that could easily be replaced (i'm sure Walt and Sophie could go see a different movie besides "Blue Velvet" with Walt's dad Bernard). but Baumbach explained that Park Slope in that time was not as happening or large as it is today, and that it had this specific feeling of being an island of a certain lifestyle in the middle of brooklyn. in a certain way, this lifestyle was similar to that in manhattan, but it had a certain "less than" quality that came from being outside of the city, and not being as successful or visible as manhattanites. at the same time, the people living there had a feeling that they were better than the other brooklynites around them, using their knowledge of high culture to show that they were somehow more worthy than their neighbors. If you've seen the movie, I think you can see how this applies especially to the characters of Walt and Bernard, their insecurities and their desire to be perceived in a certain way, especially intellectually, by the rest of the world.
Okay this is going to be really long if i keep going, so i'm just going to talk about one bad. actually, its not a bad, just something i thought could be better. in the interview, the interviewer, who knows Baumbach's real life dad, said that when Baumbach's dad would say lines like Bernard it was always with a touch of irony, of knowledge that he was being ridiculous. this may be one of those cases where Noah was just too close to it, and he didn't notice the doubled-edgeness of his dad's comments. the character of Bernard loses a lot because of this, ending up flatter and more of a villain than I'm sure the real man was. Not that it is not still a nuanced and complex role, but if we could have been shown a man who was a bit more charming and self-aware, I think we would have had a better sense of why Walt is so seduced by him. And the ego could definitely still stay.