The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

Movie
German title	The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Original title	The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	2017
length	110 minutes
Rod
Director	Noah Baumbach
script	Noah Baumbach
production	Noah Baumbach, ; Eli Bush , ; Scott Rudin , ; Lila Yacoub
music	Randy Newman
camera	Robbie Ryan
cut	Jennifer Lame
occupation
	Adam Sandler : Danny; Dustin Hoffman : Harold; Elizabeth Marvel : Jean; Emma Thompson : Maureen; Ben Stiller : Matthew; Adam Driver : Randy; Grace Van Patten : Eliza; Daniel Flaherty : Marcus; Adam David Thompson : Brian;

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) is a tragic comedy by Noah Baumbach , which premiered on May 21, 2017 at the Cannes Film Festival . The film shows the life of various members of a blended family around a neurotic New York sculptor who only works to a limited extent.

action

Plot of the first chapter

The Jewish New Yorker Danny Meyerowitz is the eldest son of the sculptor and emeritus art professor Harold Meyerowitz. Danny, on the other hand, has little to show and has never worked in the conventional sense, but has always been a houseman. But he can play the piano well, but not so well that it would have been enough for a career as a professional musician. He and his wife have an 18-year-old daughter named Eliza. Because Eliza is beginning film studies at Bard College , they finally want to split up, and Danny wants to stay at his father's house for the transition period, who, however, has an inflated ego and is now with his aging hippie wife Maureen, who has a drinking problem and is hardly older than his children. Danny has practically nothing to say in his father's apartment, but Harold himself doesn't let a minute go by without reminding someone of how unfairly he was treated as an artist in his life. Harold keeps telling his son the success of his half-brother Matthew, whom he mentions at every opportunity. Unlike his brother, who left New York, Danny has always sought closeness to his father, even if he only hails from criticism and he has increasingly outbursts of anger and freaks. Danny loves his father and, perhaps more surprisingly, appreciates his art, even though Harold's genuinely fruitful and publicly recognized creative period dates back decades. Danny's sister Jean, who works for Xerox, also lives in New York.

When Eliza shows her father her first short films, which are experimental soft porn in which she herself plays the lead role, such as the superhero Paginaman, who is equipped with a penis and a vagina and whose superpower is that he can fuck at the same time and can be fucked, Danny is surprised by his daughter's artistic streak.

Plot of the last chapters

Danny's second family is his highly motivated half-brother Matthew, whom their father and second wife Julia fathered. Matthew is clearly Harold's favorite son, but he moved to Los Angeles a few years ago and is now a successful wealth manager. He never has time for his family, which consists of his ex-wife and his five-year-old son.

When Harold has to go to the hospital because he sustained a head injury while walking his poodle Einstein, Matthew also comes from Los Angeles and his children visit him together. Harold is beginning to reflect on his legacy as a major retrospective has just been shown at MoMA by one of his fellow artists. He doesn't really have much to bequeath to his children because he is heavily in debt. Because their condition seems critical, they each want to tell their father five things they think they should tell him before it is too late. Matthew and his business partner plan to help Harold sell his house and get rid of his debt. Matthew wants to sell his father's sculptures. For this purpose, the children are preparing a group exhibition with Harold's sculptures.

production

Staff, construction and film genre

Directed by Noah Baumbach , who also wrote the screenplay for the film. The filmmaker explained that he made the film with his own money, as he always does: “The expectation is always that your film will make it to theaters. I believe in that; this is a unique experience that won't go away. Netflix acquired the film in the post-production phase. They were very supportive and I am very grateful for that. ”Baumbach has broken the film, which feels like a single coherent narrative, into separate chronologically linked chapters that introduce the individual members of the Meyerowitz family. The film is divided into four chapters that focus their attention on Danny, Matthew and Harold. The consistent humor of the first chapter is replaced by a more melancholy tone as the film progresses when it becomes clear that Harold might die. The second part of the film also introduces Danny's second family, which consists of his younger half-brother Matthew. Robbie Collin of The Telegraph compares the film with the tragic comedy The Royal Tenenbaums by Wes Anderson because of its narrative arc , but The Meyerowitz Stories is even more diffuse. One of the running gags of the film, according to Collin, is Maureen's preference for cooking with unusual types of meat and fish.

Cast and filming

Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman at the premiere for the film in Cannes

Adam Sandler plays Danny Meyerowitz in the film, the eldest son of the New York sculptor Harold Meyerowitz, whose role was taken over by Dustin Hoffman , with whom Sandler last played in the film Cobbler - The Shoemaker . Emma Thompson plays Harold's new and third wife, Maureen, who has a drinking problem. Ben Stiller took on the role of Danny's half-brother Matthew, who played Hoffman's son in the film My Wife, Her In-Laws and I, and its sequel. Stiller's dubbing was done by Oliver Rohrbeck. The last time Sandler and Stiller stood together in front of the camera was for the film Happy Gilmore from 1996. Danny's and Matthew's sister, Jean, is played by Elizabeth Marvel . Candice Bergen makes a brief appearance in the role of Harold's second wife Julia, Matthew's mother. Sigourney Weaver has a guest appearance in the film. Harold's white giant poodle is called Einstein in the film, based on the Jewish Nobel Prize winner Albert Einstein . A dog in the film Back to the Future had the same name .

The shooting took place in New York in 2016. The film was shot at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, among others.

Film music and publication

The score was composed by Randy Newman . The soundtrack for the film includes 26 pieces of music and was released for download by Lakeshore Records in October 2017.

In April 2017, Netflix acquired the rights to the film. Netflix later announced a collaboration with IAC Films. The film premiered on May 21, 2017 at the Cannes Film Festival in the presence of the leading actors. In October 2017 the film was shown at the London Film Festival . On October 13, 2017, Netflix took the film into its offer and plans to bring it to theaters later this year.

reception

Reviews

Adam Sandler at the premiere for the film in Cannes

The film has so far won over 93 percent of Rotten Tomatoes critics . After the film premiered in Cannes, several film critics brought Adam Sandler up for an Oscar nomination.

Donald Clarke of The Irish Times thinks that Sandler delivers the best acting performance of his career in the role of Danny, for example when his temper goes away with him because of his beloved daughter.

Matt Hoffman of filmschoolrejects.com describes the film as the tender, hilarious, and often heartbreaking saga of a crumbled family painfully trying to re-bond. Hoffman speaks of a film in the style of the works of Philip Roth , which in his opinion could even be the best Jewish film since A Serious Man .

Frédéric Jaeger from Spiegel Online thinks that Baumbach is very good at interweaving the basic and the everyday: “While he focuses completely on his characters and most of the stylistic decisions (apart from the often contrapuntal use of music) are based on the actions and movements of the Subordinating protagonists, the dialogues and the acting always have their own intrinsic value. ”About the comic in the film, Jaeger says that many of the jokes function less about punchlines than about a system of accumulation:“ The more we learn about the characters and their idiosyncrasies, the more They become more amusing in the repetition of spleens, empty phrases and idioms. "

Awards

On December 18, 2017, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that the song Myron / Byron from the film was in a shortlist of 70 songs from which the nominations for the Best Movie Song category at the 2018 Academy Awards would be determined become. Below is a selection of nominations and awards from well-known film awards.

Critics' Choice Movie Awards 2018