"Meyorowitz Stories (New and Selected)" Review

"An estranged family gathers together in New York for an event celebrating the artistic work of their father."

Written & Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Adam Sandler

                 Ben Stiller

                 Dustin Hoffman

                 Elizabeth Marvel 

                 Grace Van Patten 

                 Emma Thompson

In the last two or three years, Netflix has tried to position itself as a bastion for cool, interesting indie films. In the cinematic landscape we live in right now, many of the bigger studios aren't willing to make a play at smaller, more adult films. Everything needs to be based on an IP or able to hit all four quadrants to be green lit. Aside from A24 and Neon, distributors just aren't picking these kinds of movies up. That's where streaming services like Netflix and Amazon come in. There has been a ton of talk about whether this is helping or harming the industry and I tend to fall somewhere in the middle of that argument, however after seeing Noah Baumbach's latest, I've moved one notch closer to helping.

Meyorowitz Stories (New and Selected) is the closest thing to a masterpiece that we've gotten from Netflix. I've liked many of their original films (Okja is currently in my top ten for this year and Beasts of No Nation is another standout) but none of their films have had me immediately thinking Oscars. Not only should this be a serious awards threat but it's an instant classic, possibly Baumbach's best.

While the setup is pretty straightforward and the main tension and conflict is pretty familiar (mercurial and talented father and how his love and neglect have affected his children), it's the manner in which it's told that really separates this from many films like it. Harold Meyorowitz (Hoffman) is an aging sculptor, professor, crank and father. He strikes you as someone whose measure of talent falls somewhere inbetween "overlooked" and "just quite good enough." His children, specifically Danny and Jean (Sandler and Marvel) fall squarely into the former and they decide to plan a retrospective for him to give him the due he thinks he deserves. His other son from another marriage, Matthew (Stiller) comes in to New York from Los Angeles for the event and everything comes to a head. 

Again, this is all territory we've explored in countless films. Where it succeeds is its structure, characters and the warmth and love it devotes to them. Each character is equal parts familiar and new with the actor bringing a humanity that adds a layer of complexity to otherwise stock characters. Dustin Hoffman is doing his best work in almost two decades as the patriarch of the Meyorowitz family. He's constantly complaining, whether it's about not being on the guest list to an art opening or the price of steak at a restaurant. He bumbles everywhere with an obliviousness reserved for those in the twilight of their lives. He talks over his children as they ask him questions or tell him things, never really keeping the conversation flowing. He's selfish, angry and careless but before you're able to hate this guy, Hoffman injects a sadness into him that's sometimes pathetic and other times heartbreaking. Instead of shaking your head in irritation, you're too busy laughing and tearing up at this complex and compelling man. Ben Stiller is equally great as Matthew, who shares some of the best and worst qualities of his father. His drive and perseverance have propelled him into a cushy finance job on the other side of the country but that same determination has left him little time for others. Always on his phone and never in the present, Matthew is in many ways the side of his father who never left time for his family. Stiller is perfect here because he knows just how to reel himself in an give a more internal performance. The standard Stiller outbursts come in time but for the most part, Stiller gives a pretty relaxed performance within a performance as he tries to position himself as the calm center of the family.

The MVP of Meyorowitz Stories by a mile is Adam Sandler. I'm not a fan of 99% of Sandler's work. His humor has never been for me and I generally find myself annoyed at his antics in his films. So I was as surprised as anyone when the credits rolled and I immediately hopped onto social media to proclaim Sandler as this year's Best Supporting Actor. A few days have gone by and my opinion hasn't shifted in the slightest. Sandler's Danny is the side of Harold that never did anything with his life. He's a sad, disheveled man amidst a separation with his wife while trying to raise his college bound daughter. From the opening scene where he and his daughter (Van Patten) are trying to find a place to park, Sandler is pitching every note perfectly. Sandler brings so much warmth and soul to Danny and it's something I'm not used to seeing. Sandler usually plays a "lovable" schmuck but never lets himself be the butt of a joke. In most of his Happy Madison flicks, he's almost always the schlubby cool guy who gets one over on the snobs. Here though? Sandler is schlubby (mustache over some stubble, cargo shorts no matter the weather) but there's nothing cool about him. Like Hoffman, Sandler instills his character with a real, sometimes heart wrenching sadness that's elevated by how funny he is. Sandler's traditional comedy isn't really for me but he's understated and overstated at just the right time here that it coalesces into the best performance he's ever given. Baumbach and editor Jennifer Lame help push Sandler's performance into another level with their choice of cuts. Sandler is notorious for screaming like a man child in his films. That happens a few times here but before he can become overbearing, Baumbach makes the brilliant choice to cut while he's mid-yell. It's a small decision but one that ends up working wonders because it truncates the best and worst qualities of Sandler and never lets him become overbearing. 

The rest of the cast rounds out beautifully and I think this might be my favorite ensemble of the year. Grace Van Patten is wonderful as Sandler's daughter, Eliza. She's a film school major who appears to have either a lot of Baumbach or people who Baumbach encountered in his life in her. She's making these bizarre, wannabe Avant Garde  short films filled with nudity, jump cuts and purposefully bad acting. She openly shares them with her father and rest of her family in scenes that make for some of the funniest of the year. Elizabeth Marvel as Jean, the third child of Harold, isn't given as much to do as Danny or Matthew which is really the only negative I can give to this. There's a case to be made that Baumbach is telling the story of fathers and sons but Jean is just as integral to uncovering Harold as her brothers are. She has what might be the best scene in the film which makes up for her lack of import but it still stings to see a character given such pathos by an actress and not given more to do. If Danny is Harold with compassion/without ambition and Matthew is Harold with ambition/without compassion, Jean falls somewhere in between and suffers for it as she's compelled to always do what's right at her own expense. Her story is pretty damn tragic and I wish Baumbach had devoted just a little more time to her. This clocks in at just under two hours but never feels like it. I think he could have gotten away with twenty more minutes or so and been fine.

Baumbach structures his story in a series of vignettes. Scenes don't necessarily flow into one another as much as they crash into one another. They act almost like the characters in the film. People talk over one another and a tension builds because while you realize nobody is listening, they don't and it's just a frenzy of words. You're wringing your hands because you desperately want these people to hear each other. You want them to just listen and maybe they wouldn't be so screwed up emotionally. You can see the love they have for another but it's constantly stunted by the need to speak over each other. It's frustrating but exactly how life with most families is. People aren't listening as much as they're just waiting for their turn to speak. The scenes mirror this and it makes for an interesting narrative structure. It has sort of a free form, jazzy cadence that really drives home how fractured these relationships are. You're given windows into their lives and when one window shuts, another opens despite the fact that maybe you weren't finished with the last one. The looseness that Baumbach employs really gives the film a distinct flavor that helps separate it from other films of the same ilk.

I can't recommend Meyorowitz Stories enough. It's not only Baumbach's best film but it's the best Netflix Original. It's a familiar story of the things that make us family, both positive and negative and how we can embrace those things to become stronger. It's not only one of the funniest films of the year but it's also equally the most heart wrenching and heart warming ones. Baumbach gives us all the awkward, neurotic familial drama of a Woody Allen film without the gross feeling of actually watching one. This is a director at top form working with actors who are all giving some of their career bests. In some ways it's a shame that this wasn't a theatrical release but it plays really well as a find on Netflix. I can see many generations discovering this over and over again because it's a story we're all familiar with. It's the perfect film to curl up with on the couch for two hours and one that you'll want to watch many times because you'll want to inhabit these characters' lives for many years to come.

VERDICT

Meyorowitz Stories (New and Selected) is a charming yet deceptively emotional family dramedy that pulls you in and doesn't let go, even after the credits roll. Featuring an Oscar worthy performance from Adam Sandler and an ensemble of actors giving their best performances in years, this simple yet emotionally complex film is one of the best of the year. Noah Baumbach has a few great films under his belt but this is his masterpiece. The only knock against it is not using the wonderful Elizabeth Marvel enough. If Netflix can add a few more films of this caliber to their roster I think we'll finally start seeing them taken more seriously as a distributor.  

9/10