I did the other way around. I should have seen Marriage Story after this. Both are Noah Baumbach's works and have his style, but the Marriage Story is better. They both are worth recommending if you like good character drama where people talk a lot.

Harold is an artist who is no longer at the peak of his career. He has two sons and a daughter. Danny, the eldest one, has artistic inclinations, and is a good musician, but growing up, drugs got the best of him and now he is no longer pursuing the art. Matthew is the second son who is more financially successful and has a stable career. Jean is the third wheel in the narrative but she also has a stable job. There are other characters but these are the most important ones.

This is a very character-driven story. The proud, retired father can not easily digest that his best days are past him. Matthew has a more pragmatic or practical view of how his parents should handle their finances. Danny wants to be closer to his father.

With these dysfunctional adults together, the story just flows. At the outset, there is no goal that the movie is building towards, but that makes it a more natural and slice-of-life kind of experience.

There is a scene where Danny and his daughter Eliza play a piece on the piano. Moments like this can not exist in films purely focussing on the destinations.

There is not a lot happening on a big scale, but for the Meyerowitzs, the changes coming their way are life-changing. This is handled beautifully and at the end of the experience, you are happy to have seen a good comedy drama. This reminded me of the older Basu Chatterjee films. This film has more aggression and less romance than say, Baton Baton Mein, but feels like the slice-of-life nature thread still runs in both of them.

Recommended for a casual watch.

**A family with artistic vision, well, almost!**

This is one of the first titles to attach with the upcoming Oscars. Yes, they also praised the Adam Sandler's performance, which saw a series stumble in the recent years. Besides, I believed in this director. The film also had Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman. All the fine actors with a fine filmmaker, this is one of the best dramas of the year. Not a family drama, though. And it is about almost a dysfunctional family. This kind of themes is always so fun to watch, and So I had a decent time with it.

Just a week away for their father's artwork show, the two step-brothers and a sister had arrived. They have come individually, then one of them learns about news of selling the property and soon protests. Then the other brother's lunch date with his father does not go as planned. Later an unexpected emergency brings them all to unity. Following that, how the story ends are told in the rest of the running time.

Definitely a good film, but not that awesome kind. Only the cast makes it so precious, and everything else are almost seen in other similar flicks. Sandler has been doing some good roles recently, but this one was even better. It's just a different kind of comedy which still suits him. Nothing to say about Stiller and the rest of the cast. They all as good as each other. Recommended!

_7/10_

Funnier than expected, especially after I have previously been quite annoyed by both Sandler and Stiller in other films. The family event is sketched with much recognizable and humorous detail.

8/10