Noah Baumbach has made a living off of creating horrible families. His most famous work, “The Squid and the Whale,” catapulted him into the spotlight thanks to a biting script that was equal parts hilarious and upsetting. Now, after writing animated films, working with his partner Greta Gerwig and even making a documentary, Noah returns to dysfunction with “The Meyerowitz Stories.”
The title literally reflects how the film is laid out. A series of stories are shown, each focusing on one of the three children of Harold Meyerowitz, a longtime professor and sculptor, as he ages.
A film like this can be summed up very simply in that, it’s a movie about people who are clearly intelligent and failing to communicate with each other. As a movie about dysfunction, at times, the film feels hectic and fast. It matched the feeling of chaos that the characters are feeling and allows the audience to relate in a very pure and human way.
Adam Sandler gave the best performance of his entire career, which will make it even more frustrating whenever his next comedy bomb drops. He has real passion as Danny Meyerowitz. In one scene, his character is clearly getting emotional, and for lack of better phrasing, its real. His performance is very real.
Ben Stiller also triumphs as Matthew Meyerowitz as does Elizabeth Marvel as the sister, Jean. Dustin Hoffman is excellent as the elder Harold Meyerowtiz, but isn’t in the film for enough to truly stand out from the rest of the cast. Emma Thompson is absent for some of the film as well, but her performance as Harold’s alcoholic fourth wife is far less engaging than the rest.
Danny’s daughter, played by Grace Van Patten, is also a delight, and a lot of the smaller cast members offer such warm and engaging characters for the few moments that some are on screen.
However, Noah’s latest has one large flaw that prevents it from working as seamlessly as his past works. The film will often cut immediately to another "story" in the larger film, and each time it does this, it's jarring. Some moments also feature fade to black cuts that give the sense that the film is ending.
It isn’t a huge issue, but it does manage to take the audience out of the world each time it happens. The film also doesn’t feel as biting as Noah’s past works. It lacks the punch that movies like “The Squid and the Whale” and “The Life Aquatic” had.
“The Meyerowitz Stories” is a very enjoyable and engaging film, marred by some pacing and editing issues. The casts’ performances, the warm, fuzzy atmosphere and the all-around production quality help this to be the best Netflix original film to date - just not the best Noah Baumbach film. 4/5
