It is interesting to note that the two of them are completely different from each other in terms of their personalities and it left me wondering what made them hold on for so long! Very painful. In 1986, In Brooklyn, New York, the dysfunctional family of pseudo intellectuals composed by the university professor Bernard and the prominent writer Joan split. Their sons, the teenager Walt and the boy Frank, feel the separation and take side: Walt stays with Bernard, and Frank with Joan, and both are affected with abnormal behaviors. Frank, the comedic one, starts sneaking beers when his parents aren’t looking. But when it happens blatantly under the same roof he shares with the impressionable Walt, there is an uncomfortable boundary that gets trespassed across in Walt’s blind eye vision of his dad. THE SQUID AND THE WHALE Joan’s lover is the family tennis coach, whom Bernard calls a Philistine. Get entertainment recommendations for your unique personality and find out which of 5,500+ characters are most like you. The movie portrays him at a critical juncture of his life. It is not a run-of-the-mill family drama. The parents are so preoccupied with their problems that the children are left lost. He writes a song he claims is his own but is actually a little-known song written by Pink Floyd called “Hey You.” He wins the high school talent show and $100 with the assumption by the committee that he wrote the song. Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980's. But it was Noah Baumbach’s spiky screenplay of irreconcilable differences that sparked prestigious Best Screenplay nominations from the Academy Awards and Writers Guild and wins from the Sundance Film Festival and National Board of Review. It has to be." Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Synopsis submission guide. In addition to and in part because of the upheaval in the boys' lives, the boys are facing their own issues. Directed by Noah Baumbach. Bernard is a selfish, cheap and jealous decadent writer that rationalizes every attitude in his family and life and does not accept "philistines" - people that do not read books or watch movies, while the unfaithful Joan is growing as a writer and has no problems with "philistines". Joan is no saint, but she is trying extremely hard to help the children grow up into only mildly damaged individuals. The moment of truth comes when Walt must face a school-assigned shrink for lying about writing the song for the talent show. Frank on the other hand, makes no qualms about never wanting to walk in his father’s footsteps and would rather be a tennis guy like his coach and his mother’s new lover Ivan (William Baldwin). Their traumas will inspire them someday. We’re likely on the beat, but will get back to you. Frank asks, “What’s a Philistine?”  Dad tells him, “It’s someone who doesn’t like books or interesting movies.” Basically, an unevolved jock. The Squid and the Whale is about divisions, about clashing forces; the mother and father, the child and parent, the intellectual and the philistine, the appearance of things and their true nature. Joan has been having an affair for four years, their father is moving out, and in theory their divorcing parents will share custody (there is even a plan for time shares of the cat). But that doesn’t mean she is above listing Bernard’s flaws to their children. The unhappy parents who both involved in the literary field have decided to end their marriage. Even when Bernard casually serves the boys veal cutlets off of his uncarpeted kitchen floor, it is Walt who overlooks this culinary mishap. Afterward, Walt refuses to go out to eat with all of them. Then he is able to move on. Personality… witty, subtly combative, and psychoanalytical. Both kids have issues with their parents' sexuality. Discuss the boundaries between each parent and each of the children. Be the first to contribute! At the end of the movie, he runs back to that museum to look at the giant whale and large squid. The segment of scenes with Sophie is a portrayal of distrust as Walt navigates the dating world. - Padmini Roy There is evidence of fierce competition between the couple which is obvious from the.