Noah Baumbach’s Unhappy Families

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2017

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In his review of “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected),” the New Yorker critic Anthony Lane paraphrased no less an author than Leo Tolstoy. “All happy families are alike,” Lane wrote, but “every unhappy family, in its own way, belongs in a Noah Baumbach movie.” In films like “The Squid and the Whale” and “Margot at the Wedding,” Baumbach shows a particular feel for family dynamics, and for characters who are messed up and exasperating but feel as real as the people around you. “The Meyerowitz Stories” stars Dustin Hoffman as an artist long past his prime, and Adam Sandler as one of his sons. Sandler’s character has moved back home to his father’s house, and, though the world might judge him a failure, his relationship with his own daughter redeems him. Noah Baumbach talked with The New Yorker’s Susan Morrison about how families judge success and failure. Plus, Erica Jong talks about her relationship with her grandfather, their visits to the American Museum of Natural History (across the street from their apartment building), and how his devotion to her in her childhood gave her the confidence to succeed as a writer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	They didn't break that, but they have pretty good access to those people.
0:10.0	She actually, her image, she subconsciously mocks that lineage.
0:13.0	So that's happening?
0:15.0	Okay.
0:16.0	It seems like an incredible story here on many fronts.
0:19.0	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production
0:24.6	of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:29.3	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:32.8	In his review of the Myrowitz stories, new and selected, film critic Anthony Lane paraphrased
0:39.2	no less an author than Leo Tolstoy. Anthony wrote, all happy families are alike. Every
0:45.3	unhappy family, in its own way, belongs in a Noah Baumbach movie. As a writer and director
0:52.3	Boundbock's got a particular feel for family dynamics and for
0:55.4	characters who are incredibly messed up and exasperating, but there is real as the people around you.
1:01.9	We've seen it in movies like The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the wedding. The Myraward
1:06.8	Stories stars Dustin Hoffman as an artist long past his prime, and Adam Sandler plays one of his
1:13.1	sons, and all three Meyerowitz children are in the movie, each of them miserable in his or her own way.
1:20.9	Noah Baumbach came into the office recently and sat down with the New Yorkers, Susan Morrison,
1:26.1	and they started out by talking aboutoundback's history with the magazine.
1:30.4	You just talked about your time being a messenger here,
1:33.7	and that was part of this sort of old golden age of the New Yorker before faxes and email.
1:39.9	And tell us what that gig entailed.
1:43.2	Was it a little glamorous?
	...

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