Noah Baumbach Movies
A writer and director who, with two films, established himself as a disciple of the Whit Stillman School of Well-Heeled Post-Modern Post-Collegiate Anxiety, Noah Baumbach emerged as one of the more talented and literate young directors of the 1990s.The son of Georgia Brown, a film critic for the Village Voice, and Jonathan Baumbach, a novelist and film critic for The Partisan Review, Baumbach began writing and directing at a young age, first earning awards for his work during his senior year at Midwood High School. A native of Brooklyn, NY, he went on to attend Vassar, where he met Carlos Jacott, an actor who would appear in all of the director's films.
Baumbach made his screenwriting and directorial debut in 1995 with Kicking and Screaming. An ensemble comedy starring Eric Stoltz, Olivia D'Abo, and Josh Hamilton, it focused on the growing pains of a group of graduates struggling to make the transition from undergraduate life to the real world. The film garnered a warm critical reception and became something of an art house success, paving the way for Baumbach's next feature, the 1997 Mr. Jealousy. Whereas Kicking and Screaming won over critics with its brand of wry neurotics, Mr. Jealousy earned a merely lukewarm reception, and was cited by a number of critics as being weighed down by a saggy narrative and annoying characters. However, the film's central performers -- Stoltz, Chris Eigeman, and Annabella Sciorra -- all earned positive notices for their work, which led a number of reviewers to praise Baumbach's facility with actors.
Baumbach followed Mr. Jealousy with Highball (2000), a barely released drama that reunited him with Stoltz, Sciorra, and Eigeman. In addition to his other projects as a director, he kept busy as a writer, penning a series of short stories for the New Yorker. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- 2010
Ben Stiller falls for his brother's assistant (Greta Gerwig) while suffering from a midlife crisis in Noah Baumbach's (The Squid and the Whale) latest comedy drama. Scott Rudin produces the Focus Features production, with Rhys Ifans, Brie Larson, and Juno Temple heading up the rest of the cast. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- 2010
Ron Howard directs this adaptation of Claire Messud's novel about a group of young Ivy League socialites in New York City whose aimless lives are put into turnaround when the events of 9/11 disrupt their self-centered existence. Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming) writes the screenplay, with Imagine Entertainment's Brian Grazer handling producing duties. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- 2009
- PG
- Add Fantastic Mr. Fox to Queue
A wily fox uses his formidable cunning to outsmart three feeble-minded farmers, who resort to extreme tactics to protect their chickens in director Wes Anderson's animated adaptation of the popular Roald Dahl children's book. For 12 years, Mr. and Mrs. Fox (voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep) have lived a peaceful life in the wilderness with their son, Ash (voice of Jason Schwartzman). Shortly after their young nephew Kristofferson (voice of Eric Anderson) arrives for a visit, Mr. Fox's long-suppressed animal instincts begin to take over and the faithful family man resorts back to his old ways as a cunning chicken thief, endangering not only his family but the entire animal community as well. When evil farmers Boggis, Bunce, and Bean force the animals underground in a desperate attempt to capture the audacious Mr. Fox, dwindling food supplies force the frightened animals to band together in one last attempt to fight for the land that is rightfully theirs. Bill Murray, Michael Gambon, Willem Dafoe, and Owen Wilson provide additional voices. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Meryl Streep, (more)
- 2009
Independent filmmaker Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Nights and Weekends) writes, directs, and produces this intimate marriage drama focusing on the troubled union of an artistic young couple. As temptations both sexual and creative in nature challenge the couple's monogamous relationship, the facade of happiness fades to reveal the hardships of modern marriage. Jess Weixler, Justin Rice, and Jane Adams star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jess Weixler, Justin Rice, (more)
Margot at the Wedding, writer/director Noah Baumbach's follow-up to his Oscar-nominated The Squid and the Whale, stars Nicole Kidman as Margot, a woman who travels with her son to the wedding of her sister (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The relationship between the two siblings has never been harmonious, a situation that is exacerbated when Margot discovers she cares very little for her sister's fiancé (Jack Black). Soon the high-strung Margot escalates a feud between her sister and the neighbors, and family secrets come to light, forcing everyone to rethink their various feelings toward each other. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, (more)
Two boys learn the hard way about how a marriage falls apart in this independent comedy drama. Bernard (Jeff Daniels) is a novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline as he spends more time teaching and less time writing. His wife, Joan (Laura Linney), meanwhile, has recently begun publishing her own work to widespread acclaim, which only increases the growing tension between them. One day, Bernard and Joan's two sons -- 16-year-old Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and 12-year-old Frank (Owen Kline) -- are told that their parents are separating, with Bernard renting a house on the other side of their Park Slope, Brooklyn, neighborhood. As the parents set up a schedule for spending time with their children, Walt and Jesse can hardly imagine that things could get more combative between their folks, but they do, as Joan begins dating Ivan (William Baldwin), Frank's tennis instructor, and Bernard starts sharing the house with Lili (Anna Paquin), one of his students. Meanwhile, the two boys begin taking sides in the battle between their parents, with Walt taking after his father and Frank siding with his mom. Based on writer/director Noah Baumbach's own childhood experiences with his parents' divorce, The Squid and the Whale won prizes for writing and direction at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, (more)
- 2004
- R
- Add The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou to QueueAdd The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou to top of Queue
The first effort from director Wes Anderson since his critically beloved The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou finds the filmmaker re-teaming with a number of familiar faces, including Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Anjelica Huston, and Seymour Cassel. Murray plays Steve Zissou, an eccentric and renowned oceanographer who has decided to seek out and enact mortal revenge on a shark that ate one of the men on his team. Along for the ride is Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), a young man who has joined Zissou's crew after showing up claiming to be the seaman's long-lost son and Zissou's co-producer (and estranged wife), Eleanor Angelica Huston. As the expedition ensues, the two bond and Plimpton falls for a female journalist (Cate Blanchett) who is writing a piece on Zissou. The crew meets a host of obstacles on their journey, including pirates, kidnapping, and bankruptcy. Adding a flair of whimsy to the film's aesthetic, the sea creatures and underwater scenes in the film have been created using stop-motion animation under the direction of Henry Selick, the man behind The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. The ensemble cast also includes Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Gambon, Noah Taylor, and Bud Cort. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, (more)
- 2000
Over the course of one year, a group of friends gathers for three parties (a birthday dinner party, a Halloween costume party, and a New Year's celebration) at the Brooklyn apartment of a young married couple (Chris Reed, Lauren Katz). Friendships and relationships are formed, dissolved, and re-formed amidst witty banter.
~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
~ Keith Phipps, All Movie Guide
In this dark comedy, former broadcast journalist and current substitute teacher Lester Grimm (Eric Stoltz) is not especially good at displaying a healthy trust in his relationships. Ever since the age of 15, when Lester's first girlfriend ditched him for a 24-year-old, Lester has displayed an overpowering jealousy toward the women in his life -- which explains why he's still single. When Lester meets Ramona Ray (Annabella Sciorra), he's determined that this time he'll keep his emotions in check, until he learns that she has a rather checkered sexual history -- and her most recent boyfriend was a best-selling novelist, Dashiell Frank (Christopher Eigeman). Desperate to know if they still have feelings for each other, Lester starts crashing Dashiell's group therapy sessions in hopes of getting an inside scoop on what he has to say about his ex. Mr. Jealousy was written and directed by Noah Baumbach; it was his first film after his acclaimed independent debut Kicking and Screaming. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Stoltz, Annabella Sciorra, (more)
Inspired by the advent of Seattle's grunge music sound and popular films such as Slacker (1991) and Singles (1992), the Generation X comedy-drama was born. Typified by characters in their early twenties sharing an abundance of education, a lack of career direction, stunted romantic aspirations and an obsession with popular culture, one of the better examples of the genre was Kicking and Screaming. Josh Hamilton stars as Grover, a recent college graduate and aspiring writer depressed over the departure of his girlfriend Jane (Olivia d'Abo) for a fellowship in Prague. Josh's best friends are in a similar predicament. Skippy (Jason Wiles) is a classic slacker couch potato still attending classes despite having graduated, while the philosophical Max (Chris Eigeman) and Otis (Carlos Jacott), a mechanical engineer, both remain unemployed. Tenth-year student Chet (Eric Stoltz), who works at a local bar and has still not finished his education, serves as a cautionary tale for the four unmotivated pals. Kicking and Screaming was the debut of writer and director Noah Baumbach and the first of several cinematic collaborations between him and actors Eigeman and Stoltz. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josh Hamilton, Olivia D'Abo, (more)
