"I always viewed life as material for a movie." - Noah Baumbach

The Squid and the Whale was praised, Margot at the Wedding wasn’t, to the general movie-goer filmmaker Noah Baumbach appears to be quite ostentatious, perhaps even discouraging audiences to view his latest film Greenberg. But before you make this rational decision, take a gander at his more unknown films of the past and perhaps your opinion may change.  

Kicking and Screaming (1995)

Originally entitled Fifth Year, Baumbach’s career debuted with this feature film that was 4 years in the making. A unique romantic comedy about the lives of four college graduates who are trying to remain shut out from life experience and intend on stretching out their college days for as long as possible. The conundrum here is their desperation not to end up like fellow student Chet (Played by Eric Stoltz) who is in his tenth year of university studies. They struggle with their balance of friendship and relationships on hope that everything will remain the same for the rest of their lives. The film was a solid introduction to Baumbach’s scriptwriting style: dialogue orientated, finding characters through the way that they speak. Highly influenced by SNL and classic improvisational comedy the film is truly a coming of age classic. High Distinction

Highball (1997)

After the independent success of Kicking and Screaming Baumbach took at step back from the industry and produced Highball, a B-grade Comedy that is a classic portrayal of the mid-nineties: the hair, the clothing, the careless smoking and the dinner parties. The film is basically set at three different parties that the same group of friends all attend (a birthday, a Halloween party and a new years party). All the encounters are set at the apartment of a newly married couple, played by Chris Reed and Lauren Katz and the relationships formed and broken between others primarily take shape around the relationship between these two. In Baumbach's established style the characters are all quite neurotic and flawed personalities that converse with each other through hilarious and witty banter. Baumbach wrote and directed the film under alias' Ernie Fusco and Jesse Carter making the film a little hard to find but I truly recommend going to the effort of hunting down this little gem. Distinction

Mr. Jealousy (1997)

Staring Eric Stoltz (Mask) and Annabella Sciorra (The Sopranos), Mr Jealousy is a fresh look at the romantic comedy genre. Lester (Stoltz) plays a substitute teacher wounded by his past failed relationships making him the most jealous man in New York. Once he meets the new love of his life Ramona (Sciorra) it doesn't take him long to fall back into his obsessive behaviour investigating her past lovers. The premise of the film is a fantastic idea, it's simple, universal, although I think what caused the unsuccess of Mr Jealousy was it wasn't a traditional romantic comedy, it bent the rules of the genre in a sense, which only gave audiences the impression of amateurish towards Baumbach. It's a shame since the film had everything it needed to make a hit Rom-Com. Baumbach needed to prove that he knew the rules before breaking them. I only wish that this was the film he made after The Squid and the Whale. Credit

Conrad & Butler Take a Vacation (2000)

Baumbach made this 30 minute short film in an attempt to create a comedy duo in the lines of Abbott & Costello or Laurel & Hardy. Baumbach was attempting a filmic style that he just couldn't achieve, it was clear that it lacked passion. Fortunately, the film failed. Baumbach realized that the 'witty comedies' he had been attempting just wasn't his trend and he had to give his upcoming films heart, with a personal flavour, which is exactly what he did. Fail

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

Baumbach co-wrote this beautiful film directed by acclaimed filmmaker Wes Anderson. While writing the film together in an Italian restaurant they began naming places and crew members in the film after items and people they saw in the restaurant. It became apparent that both their unique script writing methods were so similar in inspiration from objects and experiences. The film follows eccentric oceanier Steve Zissou, played by Bill Murray (Groundhog Day) in a quest to find and kill a 'Jaguar' shark that ate his partner Esteban. As well as the amazing performances, The life Aquatic's visual style boosted the career of Anderson as an Auteur of cinema. The film was a superb beginning to the relationship between Anderson and Baumbach who went on to collaborate with another three films (which are all amazing) with another one on the table at the moment. High Distinction

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

After the success of The Life Aquatic Wes Anderson helped Baumbach produce this film that he had been trying to get made for four years. The Squid and the Whale is a drama/comedy set in Brooklyn (a common setting for all of Baumbach's films) in the 80's about two young boys dealing with living a life beneath their arrogant divorced parents. Loosely based on Baumbach's childhood the film becomes a highly personal piece and the failed rapport between the family is very realistic. I praise Baumbach for the courage to make this film, it establishes him as an artist and proves that he certainly has the talent to make huge money making movies although he chooses not too, staying close to his passion. The Squid and the Whale was nominated for an Oscar for best original screenplay which helped the film that only cost $1.5 million to make a gross of over $11 million. High Distinction

Margot at the Wedding (2007)

I saw Margot at the Wedding at the IFFR in 2008 and it was actually the first Baumbach film I encountered. I blame nobody for regarding it as quite an odd film for that's exactly the same way I felt. The neurotic character of Margot played by Nicole Kidman (The Hours) was the most unlikable protagonist I'd recently seen on screen. Honestly, I hated it, although I couldn't stop thinking about it. I watched The Squid and the Whale and adored it, so decided to give Margot another chance. My opinion has raised a little but I find it interesting why I feel this way, for Margot stylistically and narratively is quite similar with even better performances (Nicole kidman is almost as perfect as she was in Jonathan Glazer's Birth) to Squid and Whale. My perception is that both films are about dysfunctional families although in Margot the family is established as dysfunctional at the beginning of the film and reasons are only revealed whereas in Whale the family dysfuntionalitys not only progress, driving the film, but they're universal and recognisable to all audiences. Credit

Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Fantastic Mr Fox was the 2nd film Baumbach co-wrote with Wes Anderson. Up for two oscar nominations the film became an animation hit of 2009. Adapted from the lovable novel by RoaldDahl, the retro-stylized animation follows Mr Fox (George Clooney) whose means of survival is stealing farmer’s livestock and manipulating others that are close to him to do the same. Suddenly Mrs Fox becomes pregnant and insists Mr Fox cease his wrongful activities. 2 years later he is tempted by his natural instincts again and plans to go ahead on one last scheme, only to spin out of control resulting in the loss of his home and his family endangered by the farmers: Boggis, Bunce & Bean. Anderson and Baumbach did an amazing job adapting the short story bringing strong arcs to the characters. High Distinction

Ben Plymin

Noah Baumbach's latest film Greenberg, staring Ben Stiler will be released this Thursday 22nd July.