Squid and the Whale, The

Aroview: Two brothers negotiate the ebb and flow of adolescence following their parents' divorce in a 'family dysfunction' drama of special distinction, partly based on the director's own experience growing-up in 1980s Brooklyn.

As a family saturated in literature, the revision of arrangements is tempered with self-conscious irony and eloquent hostility, as college professor Dad (Daniels) shacks up with a female student (Paquin), while Mum (Linney) continues her affair with a tennis pro and, to her ex-husband's dismay, becomes a literary success. Benefits especially from a strong performance by Jesse Eisenberg among detailed turns from the entire cast, this never flinches from its ruthless dissection of middle-class pretension and emotional warfare. Winner of Best Director at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

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