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Displaying wall posts 1 - 30 of 32 in total
Tigrane
9Feb12
Baumbach is a weird screenwriter, but I can't help but finding his films very good. The characters are unusual and make unexpected choices, the running time is always really short. When you look at the plot of Margot at the Wedding, you find out that there's no plot, but more characters evolving between each other and confronting. I like the language of it, its sudden vulgarity and vulnerability of the characters.
EMMACHINO and muleyhaven like this
AdamantCocoon
4Oct11
How have I dealt with these obnoxious characters thus far? Is it the amazing lapses in tone and script, the paradoxes they swallow and disgorge? The film comes out a complete hodgepodge. And Baumbach still fascinates. What a jerk.
Joaopa
21Jun11
I like Noah Baumbach mainly by the choices he makes in his films. The cast is always an interesting and unusual choice. Never wrong, since the performances are always perfect. The performances by Kidman and Leigh are Jeison-natural light and just right. Jack Black in a role with surprising comic tone, but very dramatic. And Zane Pains is a revelation. www.cinemadebuteco.com
Hazel Hills
30May11
Is this really a black comedy? I mean...REALLY? It's 90% tragedy and about 10% comedy. I can't think of a film where I hated the characters more. It was beautiful looking, the acting was good, but the script is absolutely atrocious. I just found myself furious with all of the characters except for the dog. Really disappointed with Noah Baumbach on this one...I thought it was absolutely terrible.
Fandorin-san
19Aug10
I don't think I've ever seen a film where I felt so much hate for the characters and still liked it. A very interesting and depressing film. I don't ever want to watch it again.
thesecretlivesofcats
11May10
I loved Squid and the Whale and I had no desire really see this. Maybe the plot synopsis just screamed un- involving bourgeoisie disaffection to me. Boy was I wrong! . Baumbach's weaknesses are his reliance on catty dialogue to illustrate the passive aggressive situations and his constant desire to expose us to second string--but very familiar--cultural references. These are quips, though, because he draws a lot of strength from these same things as well. From the first moment the two ravishing and stringy haired sisters meet, he puts us on a roller coaster of power grabs and misplaced love.
Jordan Ghetler
31Mar10
so many stupid folks think this was Baumbach's debut film. It was CLEARLY "kicking and screaming" (not the will ferrell version)
Mr Centaur
27Dec09
I think it might be even better than The Squid and the Whale. Hopefully in time this overlooked gem will get the respect it deserves.
Christopher Lundie
2Dec09
Margot at the Wedding, Noah Baumbach’s follow up to his wonderfully idiosyncratic The Squid and the Whale is an even more idiosyncratic tale of broken relationships, adolescent love and awkward family dynamics. With his gift for writing on the lives and relationships of east coast intellectuals and their bohemian anxieties, Baumbach could be argued to be a kind of Woody Allen for the noughties generation, crafting intelligent dramas that really get inside their character’s messed up heads. Baumbach stated that he was heavily influenced by French cinema when making Margot and you can defiantly see this influence in the way he has crafted his characters and in the film’s narrative. The performances are uniformly wonderful: Nicole Kidman is always at her best when she is given complex and difficult characters to play and so naturally she excels as the neurotic and flawed Margot; Jennifer Jason Leigh’s bohemian traits are perfectly suited to her character and even Jack Black rises to the occasion. The cinematography is worth noting as it has a beautiful colour sapped quality to it that I thought was exquisite and the screenplay is full of scathing one liners. Highly recommended.
Joaopa likes this
Lemmycaution
13Nov09
Director Noah Baumbach says that he was inspired by french cinema, and Rohmer's movies. That's why the character is called Pauline. The other name, Margot in also a french name.
Hunter Duesing
5Nov09
After making something insightful and interesting with THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, it's hard for me to believe I hated MARGOT AT THE WEDDING as much as I did. It was like watching a sub-Woody Allen attempt at aping the films of Ingmar Bergman. The characters aren't interesting, they're just awful. It's a vapid, boring mess that tries to convince you it has a level of intellect that just isn't there.
Christopher Smith
11Oct09
Noah Baumbach's excellent character piece alternates between awkward comedy and bristling drama, which lends it a kind of absurd authenticity. Superb performances by an excellent cast (after a number of mediocre blockbusters, it's sometimes easy to forget how exceptional an actress Nicole Kidman is until she does a film like this). Definitely not for all tastes, but I found it continually engrossing and surprising.
Cole Garner Hill
11May09
An indulgent mess. A pure example of empty pretension emblazoned on celluloid. Yeah, I get it Noah. Bohemia is fucking abysmal. So is this "film".
Ally the Manic Listmaker
7Feb09
A fun romp with dialog. Not as great as The Squid and the Whale, but still it was great.
Jordan H
30Dec08
Bleh. Everything this film has to offer was also offered in "The Squid and the Whale". In that film, I cared about the characters, as Baumbach did a great job balancing and developing both a repulsion and magnetism in each person. In "Margot", I could care less about the characters and what's happening to/between them. Baumbach's sensibility for tight, neat anxiety is gone and we're left with a big mess.
Jay a.k.a. 6FOOT
28Nov08
I think it's a good movie with some really awkward scenes (Nicole Kidman masturbating comes to mind)
Cayley James
28Nov08
An immensely disappointing follow up to achingly intimate Squid and the Whale. The film tries so desperately to convey the hectic and ludicrious truth that blood is thicker then water ... that Baumbach loses the heart of the matter. He's so wound up in depicting people who are fucked, that he forgets that there are people in the audience. Jennifer Jason Leigh and John Turturro are the best thing about it.