BLUF
See it. It's not really like anything else. Excellent performances. Many striking, unforgettable scenes. The closing credits alone are almost worth the price of admission. My biggest complaint is that the dialogue feels stilted and artificial at times, particularly at the beginning. Maybe it got better or maybe I adjusted. Or maybe it’s intentional; this is a story about people who hide behind words.
The "white noise" — people talking over each other
Baumbach gives us “white noise” in nearly every group scene. At meals, especially, there are many simultaneous conversations. In the discussion after the movie one of the actors described it as “not A-B A-B but A-A-A-A”. In some ways it reminded me of Altman’s layering of sound, but the effect was more confusing. I thought this was a good touch, and it reminded me more than a little of my own family, which can feel like five people having six different conversations, and nobody knows everything that’s being said.
Thoughts
In a way almost reminiscent of Wes Anderson, the movie is kind of held aloft by a handful of standout scenes. There’s a dinner scene where Driver’s character demonstrates a combination of denial and bargaining that’s both very funny and all too reminiscent of the way many people behaved in March of 2020. Driver and Cheadle do a tandem lecture in a lecture hall-in-the-round (are there really such things) that was kind of amazing. The final act and the closing credits are probably worth the price of admission.
