The Squid and the Whale is one painful movie.
And from that pain it generates some laughs, but it’s not pretty. Right from the get-go you’re embroiled in the thick of a marriage on the decline and you watch as things get worse, the parents separate, and the kids take sides.
Jeff Daniels gives a fantastic performance as the messed-up father whose superiority complex and comments about uncultured Philistines makes you feel like if you don’t like this movie, then you’re one too.
Thankfully, I liked it. B+
Martin's Musings 
Shorter Squid and the Whale: Mean people do mean shit to undeserving saints. I mean, everybody’s good in it, but did Jeff Daniels have to be so unredeemable and Laura Linney such a saint? Are Tiffany and I the only two people in America who see through this claptrap? This is exactly the kind of movie I like — remember, my favorite movie of this year is “Me and You and Everyone We Know” — but whereas that movie seems to find real situations for its characters searching for connections to other people, S&W just seems to find more situations for Jeff Daniels to be an ass. The extent to which a viewer enjoys this movie, I think, is the extent to which:1. You identify with the 1980s NYC setting; and2. You find the Jeff Daniels character funny.Since I score a zero on both those points, my two-word review:Over. Rated.