Skip to main content

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

Saturday, February 14, 2009

The Squid and the Whale. Feature film. (2005, 81 mins) IMDB

...An American film that isn't an American film....

T

he Squid and the Whale is not an American movie even though it was written and directed by an American. The principal actors are American. It was filmed in the US and it centres on an American family. Of course it's American, but it isn't. It's the most European American film I've ever watched. It's not a Hollywood film. Not even close. It's therefore an independent film, yes, but most independent American films (see Sundance) want to be Hollywood films. They just don't have the budget to pull it off.

So why is it not an American film? There's a whisper of a narrative with an ending that is abrupt and odd. It doesn't have the feel of a classically structured story. And when it's over, we have more questions than answers. That's neither good or bad. It's just not what we expect when we watch an American, especially a Hollywood movie.

The film is about a novelist, writer, who can't sell his works so he pretends to write and works as a professor. He's pretentious and high-brow. He sees himself as a literary genius and the market ignores them. I guess he's not familiar with Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

He's married with two teenaged boys. It's been a long marriage, but she's been cheating on him. But has he been cheating on her? We're never quite sure, but I say yes.

They separate. She keeps the existing home. He moves into a dump. The two boys go back and forth between the two homes.

Maybe they'll get back together. Maybe they won't. Maybe he'll find a new agent and sell another novel, but maybe not.

Maybe his screwed-up sons will turn out fine or maybe they won't.

There are no answers in this film. Just observations of this family as they live their lives.

The film is interesting as we get to know each of the characters, but once we do, we realize we don't want to spend time with them. Their lives are too pedestrian.

As for the title, perhaps there is a link to some other cultural body besides the museum, but I don't know what it is and therefore I not sure what it means. The one son has nightmares about a museum display where a giant squid wraps its limps around a whale, lunch is served, and therefore. it could simply mean he's terrified because life is tough. Maybe you can tell me.

Posted 2009/02/14 at 19h34ET in Movie Commentary.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Please, Please, Please, No More

Saturday, October 8, 2011 ... what is the best way to start your novel ... C ount them. One. Two. I downloaded two thriller e-books from amazon.com, both published by the author, and they both started the same way: the character waking up and going about some morning ritual. Both books were in the top 100 bestsellers of Mystery & Thrillers Fiction. Both had many positive reviews. Those facts seemed encouraging, but once I read the opening scene, I stopped. I did not continue. But James that seems harsh? Perhaps, yes, but the writer is sending a signal with such an opening. It says, I have more to learn about writing thrillers for today’s audience. Why do I say that? Because a waking-up scene is mundane. It’s ordinary. It happens to us everyday. We don’t read thrillers for the mundane and ordinary. We read them for the extraordinary. We read them to live vicariously through the characters. We read them to be entertained. There is nothing in those waking-up scenes th...
2 comments
Read more

Analysis of Amazon E-book Fiction Bestsellers (Week #1)

Sunday, October 30, 2011 ... trying to make sense of the amazon bestsellers and pricing for e-books ... E ach hour Amazon updates its bestsellers lists. I have taken a daily snapshot of the top 20 bestsellers in the e-book fiction list for the past week. See here . What can be learnt from these data? 1. 4 out 5 of the bestsellers are from print or traditional authors. Most are brand-named authors who dominate the print bestsellers. 2. Almost all of the authors have multiple titles to their credit. The author of The Help is a notable exception. 3. The e-book prices of indie authors are substantially lower than print authors. For the most part, their titles are priced at $0.99. 4. The books on the list fall into four categories: (i) pre-release from brand-named authors, (ii) new or recently released titles (iii) long-term bestsellers (greater than one year), (iv) backlist titles. Indie authors fall into (ii) and (iv). 5. The indie authors includes authors who ...
2 comments
Read more

Checked Off

Sunday, April 11, 2010 ... one To Do is off the list ... I recently completed a task that was completely irrational. It was a fixture on my To-Do list because I always put it off. This week I decided to change that. I dug through my files of sketches and drawings and scanned them into my computer. A simple concept, sure, but tedious and time consuming. I suggest wearing latex gloves or buying hand lotion, but maybe that's a personal choice...Anyway, I now have a folder with 1.2 GBs of JPEG and PSD files. Here's an example from 1992. Right, where's that To-Do list? I want to sketch a line on it. Posted 2010/04/11 at 13h54ET in JamesPiper.com.
Post a Comment
Read more