Noah Baumbach AKA Woody Allen 2.0

Rating: 2/10 (13 January 2020)

I really like Noah's earlier films, like, The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha, Greenberg, and there has always been a hint of Woody Allen in his films, but lately it seems that they are now just completely ripping Woody Allen's film. You can almost take every scene and point to a scene in a Woody film and they are basically identical.
Noah needs his OWN voice and style. The writing is so overly written and not very believable because of that.
It's just a mixture of Manhattan and Husbands and Wives.
I like that he tries to make it natural and somewhat documentary feel to it, but the writing didn't feel authentic, especially the dialogue.
But he doesn't have the humor of Allen so it's Allen stripped of the comedy, despite his efforts, which makes for a rather dull film. Most directors are obviously influenced by previous films, but eventually create their own style. Noah seems to have become more and more like Allen rather than creating his own style.
Too much "clever" repartee and some of the cursing just seemed so out of place for the characters.
Adam Driver was miscast and Julie Hagerty seemed to have purposely cast to add humor, but again it feels forced and inorganic.
My main issue with the film was that I didn't buy the whole premise of two people wanting to resolve their issues between them but kept using THE MOST AGGRESSIVE attorneys that would yank up expenses. It made no sense. They would meet with the attorneys and have ridiculously contested issues and accusations and then in private an hour later they would be totally civil. Some of the scenes were just so over the top and not believable.
Go watch War of The Roses, at least that was somewhat fun.