Toronto and NYFF preview. Margot at the Wedding.

"Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding [site] is one of the scariest films ever," declares Jim Emerson. "If I describe it as a horror movie - torture porn about a long-obsolete and class of super-self-conscious but utterly un-self-aware white East-Coast intellectual trash - I trust that also conveys how bitterly, nastily funny the movie is. It's like a Neil LaBute picture co-written by Jules Feiffer. Scalpel-sharp. Merciless. Cruel. Uncompromisingly misanthropic. And really getting off on being so."

"A mild disappointment in the wake of the near perfect Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding still has enough sour humour and sharp insight to encourage viewers and critics to keep their faith in Baumbach's abilities as one of the more interesting American directors of his generation," writes Allan Hunter in Screen Daily.

From Emily Nussbaum's profile of Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh for New York: "'It's funny, but in a really scathing, brutal way,' Leigh says about the movie, which she praises for the way in which its cruelty rises out of real behavior, a character-centered sensibility she suggests has become a rarity. 'Just to see people so exposed, and the undoing that happens, the destruction that ensues. It all could happen over the course of a breakfast. It's that way in families.'"

"[B]ecause Baumbach's style is reminiscent of dynamic French filmmakers like Louis Malle, Margot at the Wedding has a restless energy that culminates in a nerve-jangling final scene," writes Noel Murray. "And Baumbach continues to show an acute understanding of how narcissists need their families to validate their mini-dramas." Also at the AV Club: "Baumbach firmly posits himself as an Eric Rohmer acolyte (naming Jennifer Jason Leigh's character 'Pauline' couldn't have been mere coincidence), specializing in talky, fine-tuned relationship comedies that have some bite to them," suggests Scott Tobias

"Noah Baumbach has emerged as possibly the most wrenching and impressive young American filmmaker," writes Patrick Z McGavin at Stop Smiling. "His elliptical new film centered on an impending marriage — made without transitions or exposition — synthesizes John Cassavetes and Eric Rohmer, the drama built around the dramatic and emotionally painful events of a long weekend in the Hamptons."

"The absolute highlight of the daring film is the loving way in which Baumbach directs his spouse Leigh to perhaps the most nuanced, relaxed role of her accomplished career," writes Matt Mazur at PopMatters.

"The film doesn't quite reach the heights of The Squid and the Whale (which, to me, felt heavily influenced by Wes Anderson), but it's filled with the kind of uncomfortable moments only someone with a lovingly fucked-up family can truly understand," writes the San Francisco Bay Guardian's Cheryl Eddy.

For Cinematical, Patricia Chui interviews Baumbach.

Posted by dwhudson at September 25, 2007 8:44 AM