THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED) TBC
FILM
aVailaBlE 13 OCTOBEr | NETFLIX
The latest auteur to join the Netflix revolution, Noah Baumbach (While We’re Young) serves up an erudite familial comedy. Tackling well-trodden terrain, this New York story sits comfortably alongside Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums or mid-period Woody Allen.
A study of the ties that bind (or maybe chafe?), Baumbach’s episodic saga introduces us to the Meyerowitz clan, led by Dustin Hoffman’s grouchy patriarch Harold. A father of three who’s now on at least his third marriage (to Emma Thompson’s boozy hippie), Harold has left his kids festering with resentments and anxieties.
Adam Sandler’s Danny is on the verge of divorce and moving back in with his parents. Ben Stiller’s financial wiz Matthew is guilt-ridden after escaping to LA. And then there’s the dowdy Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), overlooked and underappreciated. The only ray of hope in this fractured family is Danny’s free-spirited daughter Eliza (Grace Van Patten), a budding filmmaker.
The script is fiercely intelligent. Spitting out his lines, Hoffman dominates as the irascible Harold, but it’s Sandler who truly stands out, delivering his best performance since Punch-Drunk Love. Stiller slightly underwhelms and the chapter-like structure drags; but with cameos from Sigourney Weaver, Adam Driver and Rebecca Miller, there’s enough here to keep you hooked. James Mottram