MYST POST #1: THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED)

THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED)

A Noah Baumbach film

SOME INITIAL THOUGHTS

This 2017 film first came to my attention after I watched a video on it from the YouTube channel, "Lessons from the Screenplay." I couldn't find the video when I went back to link it to this post, so... c'est la vie. Conveniently enough, it was streaming on Netflix, though I feel like streaming great movies like this one on Netflix, where a lot of other crappy shows and movies are housed, does those movies a disservice. But that's for another post, I suppose.

Despite my qualms with Netflix, I must say that I am really glad I could access this movie. The clip that I watched on YouTube was the perfect hook for me, because it clued me into the realistic dialogue that reveals deeper character struggles and relationships -- that's something I always appreciate in a movie.

This film deals with family dynamics in the modern day when the members reconnect for their father's/grandfather's big art showcase in New York. The siblings (Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, and Elizabeth Marvel) are grown and, to put it in their words, "f****d up," because of their complicated childhood situations involving parental divorce, separated living situations, half-siblings, and the like.

The relationships between the siblings spiderweb off of the central conflict between each sibling and their father (Dustin Hoffman), who has recently fallen seriously ill. As Adam Sandler's character Danny puts it, "I wish Dad had done one big [thing] I could be angry about, but instead it's tiny things every day: drip, drip, drip..." From grappling with this strained relationship to getting tensely reacquainted with each other, the siblings are processing a lot. This movie is really a window into the lives of each of the siblings, told in "stories."

This concept of grown siblings living in the shadow of their complicated, troubled, fundamentally immature fathers who've made names for themselves reminds me a lot of Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums and Tim Burton's Big Fish. It's a strange dynamic because the kids have always felt dwarfed by the fathers in little ways throughout all of their upbringing, and as adults, they struggle with the mental blocks that this has left them with. They all come to realize, though, that their father may not be as superior a man as they'd always thought. No, each father has a lot of problems of his own that he has yet to sort through.

I also must say that I have never thought too highly of Adam Sandler outside of comedy. SNL? Great. Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, and The Waterboy? Sure. But a drama/comedy that required real acting and emotional commitment from him, not just funny voices and goofy faces? Hmm. Let me say now that I have a lot, a lot, more respect for him now. His sensitive, regretful, loving, sometimes bumbling character portrayal of an average father, son, and divorced husband set him far above average. If you have any inclination to watch him in Bedtime Stories or, God forbid, Jack and Jill, don't do that to yourself. Watch this instead.

THOUGHTS ON COMPOSITION

What struck me most throughout the movie was its composition. As the title suggests, the movie follows the stories of the various Meyerowitz family members; more specifically, the grown children, Danny (Sandler), Matthew (Stiller), and Jean (Marvel). The movie is essentially divided into four "stories", the fourth being a slightly more resolved picture of all of their stories together. I say resolved because each scene in the siblings' respective stories ends in some type of mundane chaos (Danny has a traffic jam in-car screaming fit, his daughter leaves him behind in the dust as she is driven away by her boyfriend, an argument between Matthew and his father, a screaming match between Matthew and his father... etc.), whereas the fourth story pulls itself together a bit more.

What made these end-of-scene bits so special was that they all cut mid-chaos, mid-sentence. A clean cut illustrates that more ensued, but we've seen enough to get the picture. This type of editing/composition reminds me a lot of the scene in La La Land when Mia and Sebastian fight over dinner as the smoke alarms beeps incessantly. The piercing noise becomes an agitating crescendo before it cuts to silence, a stark contrast in the next scene that leaves the viewer slightly shaken.

The last story stands apart because it allows sentences to be finished and moments to be had between characters -- the pictures slowly fade out and fade into the next scene (Matthew kisses his father on the head as he sleeps, Danny. In the context of the  dysfunctional relationships the siblings have with each other and each of their family members (father, children, divorced spouses, step-mother, etc.), the sharp cuts after escalating scenes essentially frame the discontent and poor communication. The siblings are each unstable, insecure, and wounded ever since childhood. The composition structures the imperfect characters in this way.

Also, the escalations were often pretty funny. I mean, Danny was singing along cheerily to a song on the radio at one moment as he pulled out of his parking spot, only to be spewing profanities over his shoulder at the car honking behind him in the next. He got cut off before we heard anything too bad.

In contrast, the last story shows some resolution as the siblings open up to each other and share some of their feelings about each other, their father, their lives, their worries, something they seldom did before. They learn to deal with each other, love each other, and express that to one another by the end. So, the time and space the characters are allowed through the more relaxed composition allows the audience to relish in this new life development for them. Their lives certainly aren't perfect, but the audience is able to see that they'll be okay. They'll manage. And after a movie filled with conflict, it's nice to see.

ANALYSIS OF A SCENE

One scene really stood out to me, though there were many idiosyncratic scenes that I could delve into. This one was so profoundly sweet and simple, though, that I think it deserves its own space. I'll provide some backstory, for context. Danny and his 18 year-old daughter Eliza are having dinner at Danny's father's (Eliza's grandfather's) house, since he lives near the college that Eliza is headed off to later that night for the first time. Based on everything else I mentioned about Danny's father, I'm sure you can imagine that the house is not a calm one. Dinner was uncomfortable, full of uncooked seafood soup and tense conversation.

After dinner, though, Danny makes his way to the piano. He's a musician; not a particularly successful one at that, but one that Eliza admires a great deal. Side by side, they sit on the piano bench and sing an old song, "Genius Girl," which the audience can infer they made up together when Eliza was young. In terms of cinematography, a few shot types are rotated and become increasingly pathos-driven as the song progresses.

Closeups on their hands playing the duet slowly and deliberately illustrate a kind of security in their relationship; amidst the completely dysfunctional family dynamics displayed at dinner, Danny and Eliza have a good, solid father-daughter relationship, almost like the quiet in a storm.

Then the camera will cut to a close-up of their faces, layered so that Eliza's is just visible behind Danny's. Eliza has a small smile on her face as she sings, and Danny looks full of conflicting emotions as he takes deep breaths between the verses. She's going off to college that night! Of course he's struggling. These close shots really let the audience hone in on their small movements; a small turn of the head to the side or downward, a small smirk, a glistening eye. It's really very sweet.

They also poke fun at each other lovingly in-song as Eliza says she got his hands and toes but luckily got her mom's nose. And, in her words, "You'll always be there to catch me, expect when I fall off the monkey bars," to which Danny responded, "I still hate myself for that one." With goofy little details like this that make up the majority of the song, the viewer starts to be able to imagine a whole life of laughs and tears and love between these two. It really is just a father and daughter reminiscing on 18 years together in a time of bitter-sweetness, and we as the audience just happen to see it.

Sometimes the camera will cut out to a shot from behind, the two of them filling up the entire frame as they sit close and gently sway as the chords progress. This is how they appear from an outside perspective, contrasting with the close-up cuts that make us feel like we're somehow part of this close bond. Jean sits behind them on the sofa, listening. I think this shot is what she sees, maybe with a pang of melancholy. She's alone. Then the next close-up cut brings us right back into their tender little moment together.

CONCLUSION

All in all, I'd give this a healthy 7/10 hip replacements. That'll be my scalar for this movie. Certain seemingly important plot points presented themselves and then entirely disappeared, which was a little disorienting to watch. There were also some crude parts that sort of detracted from the more touching parts of the movie, which is a shame. 'Nough said. Still, though, there's all the great stuff I mentioned above!