The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Director - Noah Baumbach
Writer - Noah Baumbach
Starring - Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Emma Thompson, Elizabeth Marvel, Grace Van Patten
"If he isn't a great artist that means he's just a prick."
Admit it, you saw this as a new Adam Sandler Netflix film and just decided to skip it. Well it is a new Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, Mistress America, The Squid and the Whale) film and Adam Sandler is just along for the ride. Once in a blue moon Sandler puts on his acting pants and finds a director who knows how to use him and channels his comedic tendencies into actual quality. The gold standard of this is Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love in which Sandler's rage is run through a filter of pure love and the desperate need to be with Emily Watson. Noah Baumbach uses that rage to punctuate Danny Meyerowitz's simmering anger that mostly stems from his relationship with his father Harold (Hoffman). Needless to say, this is good Adam Sandler.
The Meyerowitz Stories focuses on patriarch Harold, a sculptor who never found the fame and fortune he felt he deserved and his relationships with his children, Danny (Sander), Jean (Marvel) and Matthew (Stiller). Baumbach dissects the failure of Harold's parenting, the efforts of his children to provide better support for their children while still living with the aftereffects of Harold's presence, and the still present need in these adults to receive love and affection from their father. The film opens with Danny moving into his father's apartment temporarily after a divorce and sending his daughter (Van Patten) off to university where she intends to study film. Her artsy student "not un-pornographic" films provide great comedic breaks when the dourness starts to threaten the structural integrity of the film.
Danny's relationship with his father has been strained since childhood when Harold divorced Danny and Jean's mother and has Matthew with his new wife. Harold's neglect drove Danny to become a stay-at-home father for his daughter to provide her with the paternal presence he lacked growing up. Matthew's relationship with Harold is strained because Matthew abandoned any artistic potential he showed as a child and became a successful financial figure after moving across the country to Los Angeles.
Baumbach dissects these fractured relationships with his characteristic comedic sensibilities, perhaps best described as a Wes Anderson who kinda hates his characters, but infuses these portraits with the sort of warmth that has been present in his recent films, most notably his Greta Gerwig collaborations Frances Ha and Mistress America (by the way Gerwig has a tiny cameo in this film). I do not think the Baumbach who made The Squid and the Whale or Greenberg would have found the buried love in this family necessary for the second act in which Harold is hospitalized to work. To bring Wes Anderson back, a touchpoint for this film is The Royal Tenenbaums in which the estranged father figure finds his family come together to support him through late-in-life health complications. The Meyerowitz Stories is a much different film though with its approach to just about everything though.
Over the last several years Noah Baumbach has matured into one of the best filmmakers working today and his growth continues with The Meyerowitz Stories. Adam Sandler delivers his best performance in years and is surrounded by equally fantastic performances from Hoffman and Stiller. And this is not to leave out Emma Thompson who plays Harold's current wife, a problem alcoholic, who's problem is played equally for laughs and drama without ever tipping the balance. This is a fantastic, powerful film and easily the best film Netflix has released to date.
Schurmann Score - 9/10
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Danny's relationship with his father has been strained since childhood when Harold divorced Danny and Jean's mother and has Matthew with his new wife. Harold's neglect drove Danny to become a stay-at-home father for his daughter to provide her with the paternal presence he lacked growing up. Matthew's relationship with Harold is strained because Matthew abandoned any artistic potential he showed as a child and became a successful financial figure after moving across the country to Los Angeles.
Baumbach dissects these fractured relationships with his characteristic comedic sensibilities, perhaps best described as a Wes Anderson who kinda hates his characters, but infuses these portraits with the sort of warmth that has been present in his recent films, most notably his Greta Gerwig collaborations Frances Ha and Mistress America (by the way Gerwig has a tiny cameo in this film). I do not think the Baumbach who made The Squid and the Whale or Greenberg would have found the buried love in this family necessary for the second act in which Harold is hospitalized to work. To bring Wes Anderson back, a touchpoint for this film is The Royal Tenenbaums in which the estranged father figure finds his family come together to support him through late-in-life health complications. The Meyerowitz Stories is a much different film though with its approach to just about everything though.
Over the last several years Noah Baumbach has matured into one of the best filmmakers working today and his growth continues with The Meyerowitz Stories. Adam Sandler delivers his best performance in years and is surrounded by equally fantastic performances from Hoffman and Stiller. And this is not to leave out Emma Thompson who plays Harold's current wife, a problem alcoholic, who's problem is played equally for laughs and drama without ever tipping the balance. This is a fantastic, powerful film and easily the best film Netflix has released to date.
Schurmann Score - 9/10
To stay up to date on all things SchurmannFilm like me on Facebook
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