written while: basking in the glow of having completed all of my sunday chores, eavesdropping on my neighbors’ latest fight
The juxtaposition between the day I’m writing this (78 and sunny, after a weekend spent in various configurations of friend groups, post-new moon) and the time I’m writing about (overcast, below freezing, significant emotional strife) feels so far away as to be either untrue, or at least written about someone else.
Whomever it happened to, she had reached a breaking point that coincided with a week off work when her husband and child were still full-time occupied, during Austin’s nine days of winter for the year.
talked about a movie where Nicole Kidman was in a tree, and deciding to figure out why in the heck she was up there sparked a foray into the First And Last Annual Baumbach Week: two movies a day from a director I previously had little opinion on, other than “he’s Greta Gerwig’s partner.”1tuesday
First up was MARGOT AT THE WEDDING (2007), where Nicole Kidman does, in fact, scale a tree.
I liked it! It also stars Jennifer Jason-Leigh, Baumbach’s then-wife, and the way she and Kidman’s sister characters interact felt like Franny and Zooey as an adapted screenplay (positive).
The tree as a character was a little too on-the-nose for a movie that tries to remain oblique about its themes on family and growing apart.
The kids felt a bit too precocious.
Nicole is Acting and JJL’s ombré complements the seaside setting perfectly.
Then, KICKING AND SCREAMING (1995), easy to be confused with KICKING & SCREAMING (2005), since both are about adults acting like children.
This is Baumbach’s first work and probably my second-favorite that I watched during the week:
It’s Gen X core without being soo REALITY BITESified that it’s hard to watch today.
Anyone who’s been to college has experienced the “I haven’t been to Prague, ‘been to Prague’” phenomenon described in the opening scene.
The male actors being effectively indistinguishable actually enhances the movie, surprisingly.
It dragged a bit in the back half, but then my notes are “Julie scene in the bar is perfect; airport scene is perfect; ending scene is perfect,” so, y’know, stick with it.
If anything, when retrospecting across the week, I think K&S is Baumbach telling the story that he’s perfectly-poised to tell, and nearly every subsequent movie is him trying to find another way to tell K&S again.
wednesday
Per IMDB reviews, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (2005) was most people’s introduction to Baumbach and, akin to K&S, it’s a story only he could tell because it’s just a self-insert (self-excerpt? he pulled it from his own life).
The kids are precocious again, but this time it really works. Jesse Eisenberg is fantastic, as is Jeff Daniels.
Frank nearly falling out of his dad’s car has got to be the inspiration for Lady Bird rolling out of her mom’s.
Laura Linney’s side is really flat — all we really learn about her is that (1) the dad is jealous of her and (2) she’s dating a Baldwin doing a DFW impression2 — which can make the narrative whole feel uneven.
I find it extremely unbelievable that two hip writers hadn’t heard of Pink Floyd by 1983.
The titular scene is ridiculous. Creative Writing 101-level boring. The stuff that’s not that, rocks.
Then I moved to GREENBERG (2010), which is one of many Baumbach-directed, Ben Stiller-starring movies, which makes no sense to me — after watching two of said movies, I don’t think Noah and Ben have similar styles, and I’m not sure why they keep trying to work together.
Unfortunately, I thought this one was just bad. It had no point, it went nowhere, and the acting was outlandish.
Greta Gerwig dresses like Hannah Horvath, but we’re supposed to believe she’s sexy?
Having JJL and Greta in the same movie is fascinating, especially when JJL is cast as the former lover and, at times, made out to be quite frumpy, while Greta is the young hotness.3
This is seemingly the first entry in the Dave Franco Drug-Dealing Cinematic Universe (DFDDCU).
I’m pretty sure Ben Stiller wears the same corduroy jacket in one scene as Jeff Daniels does in SQUID AND WHALE.
Why does every story need a character named Ivan in it. We get it! You read Russian lit!
Ben Stiller also nearly rolls out of a car.
thursday
Somehow MISTRESS AMERICA (2015) came out after FRANCES HA (2012), but in the former, Greta Gerwig can’t figure out how to inhabit the MPDG that she nails perfectly in the latter.
Again, I thought this movie was pretty terrible, although it is full of, “Oh, that ex of hers is the weird brother-in-law from Severance”-type castings, which is its own fun.
The nice house looks like a Taco Bell from 1994.
The whole score sounds like the song that’s sung at the school dance scene in BETTER OFF DEAD.
Despite his best efforts, some of his movies like this make me think that Baumbach would actually be better-served as a short story writer — but then he would be his dad, aka Jeff Daniels from SQUID AND WHALE, and we can’t have that, can we.
Generally my distaste for this one comes from the fact that his other movies at least understand the old improv adage of, playing close to reality is funny, trying to be funny is boring. He tries to make everyone zany in MISTRESS but they just end up feeling try-hard.
Another important CU emerges in WHILE WE’RE YOUNG (2014): Adam Driver Is Wearing A Hat.
The whole movie is Adam Driver Is Wearing A Hat, and Ben Stiller Would Like To Wear A Hat. It’s, per the director, a companion to MISTRESS AMERICA, but is in reality just a companion to GIRLS.
The version I watched on Amazon Prime was clearly a rip from a scratched DVD — it kept switching from 4:3 to 16:9 to some secret third aspect ratio, then back again, which just enhanced the already-poor viewing experience of the actual movie I was trying to watch.
All of Baumbach’s movies are about the fear of societal constriction. You think this one is about the fear of freedom, but it’s actually about the fear of societal constriction imposed by aging which is just him trying to make K&S again.
Btw this also has Amanda Seyfried wearing a Mamma Mia-esque shirt, but unfortunately is not about her wearing that shirt. That would’ve been a better movie.
As a parent, all of the baby-wearing scenes in this are actually physically uncomfortable to watch. Please respect the child actors’ hips!!!
friday
Triple header!
MR JEALOUSY (1997) is my favorite of the Baumbach week movies, because I’d never heard of it before and now can recommend it to everyone4. It’s fun! It’s funny! They’ve got chemistry! Bring back real rom-coms!
Can you believe a redhead named Lester is hot?
This movie fundamentally understands that toxic masculinity is just homoeroticism at its core.
Annabella Sciorrra is so beautiful.
I’d saved FRANCES HA (2012) for the end of the week, because it was the only one I’d seen before and wanted to end the journey on a high note.
I still love this movie on re-watch, although unfortunately slightly less than I originally did :(
Adam Driver wears a hat, but not as much.
There’s a part where Frances talks about wanting to find a love that she’ll know is true by their locking eyes across a crowded party. I feel like I just read a book where a character is talking about that same thing, but can’t for the life of me remember which.
Women. Similar to the Neapolitan novels, I have no clue what artistic value men get out of watching FRANCES HA, but it’s not for them so I don’t care.
You may think, ah, 20TH CENTURY WOMEN (2016) is not a Baumbach Week Movie since he had no involvement with it, but by starring Greta Gerwig, it is, in fact, a Baumbach Week Movie.
Women.
This movie made me sob on first watch. I still absolutely loved it upon rewatch, but I’m not sure what part I cried at the first time.
I first heard of this movie from
5 a few years ago, and now remain mad at A24 that it didn’t get more marketing when it came out. It needs to be entered into the Criterion Collection!!!Women.
books
For entertainment during the other 3 weeks of February, I read.
All Fours by Miranda July | Hum by Helen Phillips | Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova | I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue | The Door by Magda Szabó | Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte
I’m genuinely surprised to see these all made it in in February, as I felt off-kilter and brain-spacey the whole month.
And February continued my 2025 trend of being yet to fall in love with any of my stories: All Fours made me feel ???? (negative), Rejection ?? (positive?). Hum sucked! Hope This… tried too hard. Monstrilio and The Door were good, but my expectations were too high.
looking toward spring
March 13 marked the full moon, and as an astrology agnostic6, I didn’t know that but did feel the vibe shift alongside many of my friends:
I hope you did too — I know we all need it. ❀◕ ‿ ◕❀
When coworkers asked how I spent the week off, the conversation always went: “Do you know who Noah Baumbach is? No? Oh, um, Greta Gerwig’s guy? … Yeah, the Barbie movie person… her romantic partner… no, he’s not my favorite director, although she might be… yeah I just thought it’d be fun.”
Even the guy who’d spotted the Lady Bird screenplay book in my Zoom background hadn’t heard of him.
Wearing a purple bandana all the time is, again, pretty frustratingly on the nose.
A quick google seems to reveal that Noah & JJL were together while filming this movie, but divorced in the interregnum before its release. Wonder what happened.
And it’s on Netflix US at the time of this writing! Go watch it.
I would love to believe in it, but can never keep its rules and regulations from slipping out of my head.