THE SQUID AND THE WHALE

Writer/director Noah Baumbach's semi-autobiographical story of the Berkman family opens in mid-'80s Park Slope, Brooklyn, where writers Bernard (a stellar Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney) live with their two sons, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline). Bernard is an English professor and once-successful novelist who's struggling to find a publisher for his latest work. Contrary to her husband's stalled writing career, Joan's first novel is about to be published, a development that burns the narcissistic, alarmingly pretentious Bernard to no end. The marriage inevitably falls apart, which is when The Squid and the Whale's tale of domestic dysfunction really begins to take hold. Each son reacts to the separation in his own disturbing ways, and each is devastatingly effective in conveying the heartbreak inherent in a broken family. Among the disc's special features is a brief but probing interview of Baumbach by writer/film critic Philip Lopate in which The Squid and the Whale's immaculately detailed setting and deeply personal subject matter are discussed with candor and insight. (Jason Gargano) Grade: A