“We don’t ever know each other”
I’d say that depends on who you’re talking about. Not everyone is such a layered mix of entitlement and conflicted moral leanings.
54
Would recommend seeing this after Kramer vs Kramer. Visual story telling may have changed but 40 years later divorce is still the same...
66
Oh dear...from the trailers this film looks just awful, full of navel gazing, and bourgeois. I am a fan of Johansson but find every-man Driver the same in everything. I have seen most Baumbach films but unless dragged, I'm sitting this one out.
43
@Lisa Wow. Chocolate/vanilla here. I found the trailer intriguing and cannot wait to see this.
67
it is always bewildering to hear the low opinion people have of lawyers, who are the very people to whom they turn for help when they are at their worst (DUIs, divorce, etc.). while ethics should always inform their tactics, lawyers try to win.
81
I loved the movie and your review but Charlie's affair almost destroyed the film for me as it made it impossible to be subjective. I wanted to be non-judgmental but from that point on I knew I could never view the causes for this divorce as simply a "he said she said" narrative.
Cheating is cheating. Everything else is so much bad dinner theater.
143
It is always a pleasure to read Mr. Scott (and that goes beyond the reviews). However, please rewrite "shark in a suit". The lawyer is a human being, after all, not a shark - a species that does a lot of good.
67
Finally a film I want to see, and I tend to agree with Mr. Scorsese in his opinion piece. Most movies made to day don't interest me at all.
60
Great, well written review for a great, well written movie. I hope everyone who sees this film and is moved by it also gets to read this review.
73
I'm a big fan of Noah Baumbach. His movies have that quotidian intimacy that's accessible but not over-thought or over-stylized, even though populated by big names and dominated by big themes in deceptively familiar packages. I hope he can maintain that feel going forward. (Trying to skim this review so as not to reveal too much to myself... just enough to know I want to see this soon!)
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@the view
“Quotidian intimacy...accessible”?
Um
28
@Rainreason
I actually find that juxtaposition clarifying. Baumbach's movies are complex and forthright at the same time. They're focused on delicate, very human moments in everyday living in a way that is not sentimental or neurotic or delivering a bromide of easy resolution. Plus, I love the breadth of language. Synonyms are your friends.
43
@name @location, you are too exact.
While synonyms aren’t my friends, I dont think, I do have bromide in my garage, I think. Love Baumbach and his loosey goosey style. I do recall a neurotic character or two, again, I think.
4
Give credit to Leonard Cohen for the subtitle, “dance me to the end of love.”
125
@Anne Morrison I think that most informed people who read the Times and follow A.O. Scott are more than familiar with Cohen's brilliant lyrics.
29
@joang27 Maybe but Anne has a point and is entitled to pointing it out. These are Cohen's words not Scott's.
73
@Lisa I absolutely agree and wish I could have amended my comment shortly after I submitted it. I can't and won't speak for Scott, but in some ways, Cohen's words have been assimilated into contemporary culture. That said, there are indeed, too many instances where giving credit gets overlooked. Hear hear.
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