Noah Baumbach – Brandon Talks Movies

Marriage Story

January 12, 2020 Brandon GregoryLeave a comment

“Criminal lawyers see bad people at their best; divorce lawyers see good people at their worst.”

There are many films that tell entertaining or compelling stories, but there are far fewer that are so real that they hurt. Marriage Story, directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha) and starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, is definitely real enough to hurt. It’s a story of a divorce—and Baumbach has done a so-real-it-hurts divorce movie before in The Squid and the Whale, but, where that one was emotionally brutal, this story has that raw emotional brutality, but it’s tempered with love and a touch of humor (there are a few laugh-out-loud funny scenes) that keep it from getting too depressing. So couple a smart script with what are perhaps the best performances of the two leads’ careers and you get an outstanding dramatic film on par with some of the hardest-hitting classics out there.

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Director Noah Baumbach

June 7, 2017June 7, 2017 Brandon GregoryLeave a comment

Director Noah Baumbach

“I grew up in the heat of 70s postmodern fiction and post-Godard films, and there was this idea that what mattered was the theory or meta in art. My film is emotional rather than meta, and that’s my rebellion.”

Art house filmmaker and native New Yorker Noah Baumbach (1969-) is a master at capturing raw humanity on film. His work is highly autobiographical and portrays complex emotions that defy straightforward explanations and labels. And the emotions are not merely a sideline element—for most of his work, those complex emotions are the statement. You’re meant to feel what the characters are feeling, even if you don’t know what it all means or where it’s going.

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Frances Ha

May 22, 2017September 17, 2018 Brandon GregoryLeave a comment

“The only people who can afford to be artists in New York are rich.”

Danish Existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, in his book Either/Or, writes out a debate between two viewpoints on life: the aesthetic, which focuses on beauty and integrity, and the ethical, which focuses on morality and responsibilities. In the end, the answer is that nothing we do in this life, whether aesthetic, ethical, or anything else, will give us the meaning and fulfillment we desire—we have to find purpose independent of our beliefs and actions in something larger than ourselves. In a way, indie movie Frances Ha, co-written and directed by Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg) and co-written by and starring Greta Gerwig, has a similar message. It’s a movie about the idealism and values many modern young people cling to, and it paints a vivid picture of the dream of many young in their 20s.

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The Squid and the Whale

April 30, 2017February 24, 2019 Brandon GregoryLeave a comment

“Mom and me versus you and Dad.”

In general, movies put forth a caricature of real life rather than a snapshot of reality. Reality can be boring at times, yes; but reality can also be a lot more harsh than what we want to see in movies. Every once in awhile, a movie comes along that’s so emotionally real that it hurts. The Squid and the Whale is that kind of movie. Noah Baumbach wrote the script based on his own childhood and originally pitched it to Wes Anderson to direct. Anderson loved the script, but felt that Baumbach should direct it due to how personal it was to him. The writing and acting are brilliant. Emotionally raw and brutal, this movie captures the nuances of divorce unlike any other film I’ve seen.

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