I've heard it's the fillet of the web.

April 10, 2007 4:53 PM

Noah Baumbach, Writer and Director of The Squid and the Whale, has a short film on youtube. 1--2--3
posted by jne1813 (19 comments total)

OT: I didn't watch the film, but damn, your post started out like an obit. Thank god it's not. I think he's my age. I quite enjoyed Kicking & Screaming and Mr. Jealousy.

Thanks for the link. I'll check it out when I'm on a real connection...
posted by mrgrimm at 5:26 PM on April 10, 2007

I don't care who directed it, that's some of the worst acting I've ever seen - bailing after 2 minutes...
posted by twsf at 6:06 PM on April 10, 2007

I found it pretty unwatchable too. Shame because I enjoyed The Squid and the Whale.
posted by saraswati at 6:13 PM on April 10, 2007

The Squid and etc. sucked too. Characters are not just objects that say things. Why can't this guy learn this?
posted by luckypozzo at 6:17 PM on April 10, 2007

Characters are not just objects that say things.

Yeah, they occassionally do things too. Like in The Squid and the Whale.
posted by dobbs at 6:36 PM on April 10, 2007

Okay, Baumbach's work is dialogue-drive so I'm sorry if you guys are expecting car chases. Secondly. if your not willing to give a film more than two minuted you ought to stick reality t.v.
posted by jne1813 at 6:53 PM on April 10, 2007

I thought The Squid and The Whale was one of the finest films of the past 5 years. And the acting from all the leads was impeccable.

That makes this short much sadder in comparison.

But hey, it's a short and I'm sure it was made on no budget. Still it sounds like it was mostly improv-ed...and not very well.
posted by django_z at 6:53 PM on April 10, 2007

jne1813 - time to come clean. did you work on this short or know someone with some kind of connection to it?
posted by django_z at 6:54 PM on April 10, 2007

* "Secondly,"
* minutes
* stick to
posted by jne1813 at 6:54 PM on April 10, 2007

you're
posted by ColdChef at 7:14 PM on April 10, 2007

I liked The Squid and the Whale and I really wanted to like this, but I also did not. To be fair, I also only gave it a few minutes of consideration.

Nonetheless, it's a good post jne1813, so I don't mean to criticize you. My disappointment is with Noah.
posted by wool sock at 7:40 PM on April 10, 2007

The Squid and the Whale was brilliant. This has some laughs, but it seems he didn't put his best into it. It's not so much a "short film" as much as it is just Noah goofing around with a camera and some friends.
posted by buriednexttoyou at 7:41 PM on April 10, 2007

I thought it was funny! but, uh didn't get past the 2.17 mark.
posted by pointilist at 8:00 PM on April 10, 2007

i loved the direct-object drinking game
posted by jne1813 at 8:56 PM on April 10, 2007

I like the Squid and the Whale. I watched the first segment of this and was disappointed. I tried to imagine one of the Wilson brothers reading the dialogue to make it funnier, but I just couldn't get over the bad acting.
posted by Frank Grimes at 9:18 PM on April 10, 2007

I hated Squid and the Whale though I thought the acting was top notch. A lot of the writing, too, I thought was good.

But I hated the movie. I hated the story, the characters, almost everything. I had arguments about this.

This? I thought these guys were utterly weird - who the fuck _are_ these guys? Are they a couple? I watched the whole thing (masochist/time to kill) and laughed out loud a couple times. The dialogue was funny. Ridiculous.

Totally worth it. If, that is, you're a bit of an aesthetic masochist and you have some time to kill.

Otherwise, do pass.

On another note, wasn't this what the whole 'youTube' thing was supposed to be?
posted by From Bklyn at 2:02 PM on April 11, 2007

This can be found on the Criterion Edition of Kicking and Screaming. If I recall correctly, a lot of it is improv'd.

Improv is a great tool for creating wonderful and unexpected moments, but trying to make engaging scenes solely out of improv is very difficult.
posted by skryche at 7:14 AM on April 12, 2007

Noah Baumbach films in order of greatness:

1. Kicking & Screaming
2. The Squid & the Whale
3. Mr. Jealousy
4. Sex tape featuring Noah & Wes Anderson tag-teaming Parker Posey
5. This thing
posted by synaesthetichaze at 10:30 AM on April 12, 2007

OK, synaesthetichaze - that "4. Sex tape featuring Noah & Wes Anderson tag-teaming Parker Posey" wasn't funny.

I looked everywhere. And ha ha, it doesn't exist.

Now I have six days of work to catch up on. Thanks, asshole!
posted by From Bklyn at 2:50 AM on April 18, 2007