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Scarlett Johannson and Adam Driver tug the heartstrings in Noah Baumbach’s brilliantly observed dissection of a marriage breakup
Noah Baumbach’s career as the millennials’ answer to Woody Allen hasn’t always been a piece of cake: sometimes he’s erred on the side of empathy-gap (Greenberg), sometimes on the side of wilful hipsterism (Frances Ha) and sometimes on pseudo-literariness (The Meyerowitz Stories). But with Marriage Story he hit the nail on the head so hard it almost hurts.
First and foremost, Marriage Story’s brilliance lies in its relatability. Who hasn’t been through a painful breakup, with all the attendant subsurface miseries and emotional politics – even those of us who aren’t bicoastal entertainment-industry professionals with access to large amounts of ready cash? Continue reading...