82
Metascore
37 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 91Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumIn hovering, The Squid and the Whale becomes its own realistic display of family entropy, as cautionary as it is educational.
- 90TimeRichard CorlissTimeRichard CorlissThe Squid and the Whale is domestic tragedy recollected as comedy: a film whose catalog of deceits and embarrassments, and of love pratfalling over itself, makes it as (excruciatingly) painful as it is (exhilaratingly) funny.
- 90The New York TimesDana StevensThe New York TimesDana StevensBoth sharply comical and piercingly sad. Mr. Baumbach surveys the members of the flawed, collapsing Berkman family with sympathy but without mercy, noting their individual and collective failures and imperfections with relentless precision.
- 88New York Daily NewsJami BernardNew York Daily NewsJami BernardA great divorce movie. It's also one of the canniest comedies ever made about a certain kind of literary pretension.
- 88New York PostNew York PostWith its dry wit and all-star household, Baumbach's movie resembles Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums" without the heavy whimsy.
- 80Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanTender, cruel, and very funny, Baumbach's fourth feature turns family history into a sort of urban myth.
- 80Film ThreatPete Vonder HaarFilm ThreatPete Vonder HaarBaumbach crams an impressive amount of characterization and humor into 82 minutes.
- 80The A.V. ClubNathan RabinThe A.V. ClubNathan RabinIt's an unflinchingly raw and honest look at a family splitting apart, and it seldom strikes an unconvincing or inauthentic note. Though it surveys rocky adolescent emotional terrain from the safe distance of adulthood, The Squid And The Whale still resonates with the sting of a fresh wound.
- 70VarietyScott FoundasVarietyScott FoundasPic makes up in strong performances and wry observation what it sometimes lacks in narrative drive. Result is a perceptive (and unexpectedly moving) portrait of lives in crisis.
- 50TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghTV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonaghThe title refers to a diorama at New York City's American Museum of Natural History that depicts a whale and a giant squid locked in mortal combat.