The Meyerowitz Stories was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section, and also won the Palm Dog award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.[4][5][6] It received positive reviews from critics, who praised Baumbach's script and direction, as well as the performances, with Sandler especially singled out for praise. It was released in theaters and for streaming by Netflix October 14, 2017.
The film was the second Netflix film competing at Cannes, with Okja, which caused a clash with jury president Pedro Almodóvar, who opined that Cannes Film Festival films should be made for big screens, not online streaming.[7] In 2017, the Cannes Film Festival announced a new rule that requires a film competing at Cannes to "commit itself to being distributed in French movie theatres". A French law mandates that films cannot be shown on streaming services for 36 months after their theatrical release, effectively blocking Netflix films from future festivals.[8]
Plot
After separating from his wife, unemployed Danny Meyerowitz moves in with his father, Harold, a retired Bard College art professor and sculptor, and his fourth wife, Maureen, a pleasant but foggy hippie. Jean is his sister, and they have a younger half-brother, Matthew. Danny is close to his daughter, Eliza, a freshman film student at Bard. Eliza shows one of her sexually provocative films to the family, who try hard not to show their shock, instead complimenting its energy and production value.
Some of Harold's work has been selected as part of a faculty group show at Bard, but he refuses to be part of a group show. Danny and Harold attend the MoMA retrospective of a friend and contemporary of Harold's, the successful L.J. Shapiro. There, neither father nor son feels comfortable; Harold feels that the art world has forgotten him, and chooses to literally run away down the street. Danny meets Shapiro's daughter, his childhood friend, Loretta, but is forced to leave to chase after Harold.
Harold's younger son, Matthew, a successful financial advisor to rock stars on the West Coast in Los Angeles, is in New York on business, and meets Harold for lunch with an accountant friend. They try to convince Harold to sell his Manhattan home and its sculpture, for he can barely pay the townhouse's utilities. Harold tells them that the decision to sell the house is a private family decision, and stalks out. At a third restaurant, he criticizes the prices, but orders lavishly when Matthew says he will pay.
During lunch at the restaurant, Harold feels offended by the arrogant manner of another patron, and gets Matthew to chase him when he alleges that the patron swapped jackets with him. Although mistaken, father and son bond slightly in self-righteous indignation. That evening, they pay a visit to Matthew's mother and Harold's second wife, Julia, who has since married a man named Cody, a wealthy philistine. She tells them that she is sorry that she was not a better mother to Harold's two children from a previous marriage (Danny and Jean); her directness makes them uncomfortable, and they are eager to leave. Matthew resents Harold for preferring a life of art over money. "I beat you!", he screams at his father's departing Volvo.
Harold is diagnosed with a chronic subdural hematoma. He enters the hospital, where, as the days pass, his children learn to manage his care, after first leaning on Harold's doctor and nurse to do it. Outside the hospital, Jean tells her brothers that the family friend, who happens to be visiting Harold at the moment, exposed himself and masturbated in front of her when she was a child. Upset with the revelation, Matthew and Danny decide to beat the friend, until they learn that he is an elderly man who requires nurse care. Instead, they damage the friend's car with mounting exhilaration. Jean expresses her disappointment in her brother and half-brother, having wanted someone to just listen to her instead of doing such damage without her consent.
At Bard, representing their father at the faculty group show, Matthew and Danny get into a fight, of sorts, on the quad; later, bloody and crying, each makes drug-addled remarks as Harold's proxies, mostly about themselves, and Matthew ends up breaking down emotionally during his speech. As Harold convalesces at Maureen's place in the country (the townhouse was sold, despite Matthew's change of heart), it dawns on Matthew and Harold that Harold's favorite sculpture, titled "Matthew", a lifelong object of resentment for Danny and Jean, was likely based on his feelings for young Danny.
Danny, who, until now, has been solicitous toward his father, refuses to care for him while Maureen is away, and accepts his brother's offer of a trip to California, but he forgives him for his failures as a dad. On the way to the flight, he meets Loretta, now single, and she suggests that they go together to the screening of a film that Eliza has made. In the basement of The Whitney, Eliza uncovers her grandfather's sculpture, long believed to have been lost.
Cast
Adam Sandler as Danny Meyerowitz, Harold's first son. After separating from his wife, he moved in with his father.
Ben Stiller as Matthew Meyerowitz, Danny's half-brother and Harold's son. A successful financier who lives across the country and is currently separated from his wife, who he suspects has a new boyfriend.
Dustin Hoffman as Harold Meyerowitz, a moderately successful sculptor and retired college professor. He has been married four times.
Emma Thompson as Maureen, Harold's fourth wife, an alcoholic hippie.
Elizabeth Marvel as Jean Meyerowitz, Danny's sister and Matthew's half-sister, and Harold's daughter.
Grace Van Patten as Eliza Meyerowitz, Danny's daughter and film student who makes provocative short films.
During production, the film was known by the working title, Yeh Din Ka Kissa ("The Tale of This Day" in Hindi).[13]
Release
In April 2017, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film.[14] It had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival May 21, 2017,[15] where it received a four-minute standing ovation.[16]
The film was released in select theaters and for streaming on Netflix October 13, 2017.[17]
Although Netflix does not publicly disclose box-office results of its films, IndieWire estimated that The Meyerowitz Stories made approximately $20,000 in its opening weekend, a figure that the site noted as impressive, considering it was released simultaneously for streaming.[2]
Adam Sandler garnered acclaim for his performance, with many critics calling it one of the best of his career.
Critical response
On the review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92%, based on 189 reviews, and an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) observes the family dynamic through writer-director Noah Baumbach's bittersweet lens and the impressive efforts of a remarkable cast."[18] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[19]
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, and praised the cast and script, saying: "They're a smart and sophisticated and relatively privileged bunch, but they're miserable and ridiculous, which makes for some poignant insights and some sharp comedy. We enjoy the Meyerowitz clan, even as we praise the heavens we're not like them and we don't live next door to any of 'em."[20]
Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers also gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4. He wrote, "Noah Baumbach's funny, literate story gives Dustin Hoffman, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller plum roles – and may be the best thing he's ever done."[21]
Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a positive review, calling it the best Netflix film to date, and praising Sandler's performance, writing: "With no shtick to fall back on, Sandler is forced to act, and it's a glorious thing to watch–even for those fans who like him best in perpetual man-child mode (don't worry: the character is a full-grown variation on that familiar Sandler prototype)."[22] Other critics were equal with their praise of Sandler, with various outlets calling his performance a "triumph", "miraculously great", and that "it's time to admit that Adam Sandler is actually a good actor".[23]
Accolades
Dustin Hoffman, Noah Baumbach, Emma Thompson, Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler at the Cannes Film Festival screening of The Meyerowitz Stories in 2017
Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor and comedian. Primarily a comedic leading actor in films, his accolades include nominations for three Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2023, Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
Punch-Drunk Love is a 2002 American absurdist romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It follows an entrepreneur with social anxiety who falls in love with his sister's co-worker. The film was produced by Revolution Studios and New Line Cinema, and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
Noah Baumbach is an American filmmaker. He is known for making light comedies set in New York City and his works are inspired by filmmakers such as Woody Allen and Whit Stillman. His frequent collaborators include Wes Anderson, Adam Driver and his wife, Greta Gerwig.
David Jonathan Heyman is a British film producer and the founder of Heyday Films. Heyman is best known as the producer of all eight installments of the Harry Potter film series, which are based on a series of popular fantasy novels of the same name by author J. K. Rowling. He then produced all three installments of its spin-off prequel series, Fantastic Beasts. His work makes him the second-most commercially successful producer of all time.
Sakina Jaffrey is an American actress.
Greta Celeste Gerwig is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. Initially known for working on various mumblecore films, she has since expanded from acting in and co-writing independent films to directing major studio films. Gerwig was included in the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world in 2018.
While We're Young is a 2014 American comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Noah Baumbach. The film stars Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, and Amanda Seyfried; its plot centers on a New York–based documentary filmmaker and his wife, a couple in their 40s, who develop a friendship with a couple in their 20s. The film was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, and A24 released it in the United States on March 27, 2015. The film went on to gross more than any of Baumbach's previous films at the US box office.
Adam Douglas Driver is an American actor, recognized for his collaborations with auteur filmmakers. Driver made his film debut in J. Edgar (2011) and played supporting roles in Lincoln (2012), Frances Ha (2012), Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) and While We're Young (2014) before gaining wider recognition for his portrayal of Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy (2015–2019).
Mistress America is a 2015 American comedy film directed by Noah Baumbach. It was written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, who stars alongside Lola Kirke. The film was released on August 14, 2015, by Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Grace Van Patten is an American actress. She has appeared in two films distributed by Netflix, Tramps (2016) and The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), and in Hulu's miniseries Nine Perfect Strangers (2021) and Tell Me Lies (2022).
Gayle Rankin is a Scottish actress. She is known for her role as Sheila in the Netflix series GLOW (2017–2019). She also played Emily Dodson in the HBO series Perry Mason (2020). Her films include The Greatest Showman (2017), Her Smell (2018), Blow the Man Down, and The Climb.
Marriage Story is a 2019 American drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach, who also produced the film with David Heyman. It stars Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a couple going through a bi-coastal divorce complicated by custody issues surrounding their son. Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta, Julie Hagerty, and Merritt Wever appear in supporting roles.
Matthew Louis Shear is an American actor. He is known for playing the role of Tony in Noah Baumbach's Mistress America, opposite Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke.
Uncut Gems is a 2019 American crime thriller film directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ronald Bronstein. It stars Adam Sandler, LaKeith Stanfield, Julia Fox in her feature film debut, Kevin Garnett, Idina Menzel, and Eric Bogosian. The film tells the story of Howard Ratner (Sandler), a Jewish-American jeweler and gambling addict in New York City's Diamond District, who must retrieve an expensive gem he purchased in order to pay off his debts. Filming took place from September to November 2018. The original score was composed by Daniel Lopatin. Uncut Gems is the last film directed by the Safdie brothers before dissolving their partnership in 2024.
Jennifer Lame is an American film editor. She is known for her work on Manchester by the Sea, Hereditary, Tenet, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and the films of Noah Baumbach. In 2023, Lame edited Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. She is a native to Narberth, Pennsylvania and is married to film producer Craig Shilowich.
White Noise is a 2022 absurdist comedy drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach, adapted from the 1985 novel by Don DeLillo. It is Baumbach's first directed feature not to be based on an original story of his own. The film stars Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, and Don Cheadle. Set in the 1980s, the story follows the life of a niche academic and his family as they go through trials and tribulations, beginning with an environmental disaster near their home.
Louis Patrick James Partridge is an English actor. He began his career as a child actor, making his feature film debut in the fantasy Pan (2015). After appearing in Paddington 2 (2017) and portraying Piero de' Medici in the historical drama series Medici (2019), Partridge had his breakthrough as Viscount Tewkesbury in the Netflix mystery film Enola Holmes (2020) and its 2022 sequel. He has since portrayed Sid Vicious in Danny Boyle's FX miniseries Pistol (2022), Peter Pan in the fantasy film The Lost Girls (2022), and Jonathon Brigstocke in Alfonso Cuarón's psychological thriller Disclaimer (2024).
White Noise (Soundtrack from the Netflix Film) is the soundtrack album to the 2022 film of the same name, directed by Noah Baumbach. The film's original score, which was composed by Danny Elfman, was released into a 20-track album on November 18, 2022 by Netflix Music. It also accompanies an original song, "The Cloud is Coming" performed by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips. A single "New Body Rhumba" was recorded for the film's soundtrack, but did not include in the album, despite being released as a single on September 30.
Noah Baumbach is directing an upcoming coming-of-age comedy-drama film, from a screenplay he wrote alongside Emily Mortimer. It will star an ensemble cast, including George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern and Billy Crudup.
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