'trendy, with no point'

I'd just call him "philistine" and walk away.

What argument would you make to defend this movie against someone too stubborn to accept it?

Your husband sounds a lot like me actually. I'm not quite as well read on literature, but I'm a guy who is pretty apathetic about action movies and movies that are perceived as being "guy movies". I generally like movies that are deep exploratory character studies, about which many other guys (and some gals too) will say has no point and "nothing happens in this movie" ... etc.

Still, all that being said, sometimes I do come across a critically acclaimed indie drama that leaves me feeling like the emperor has no clothes on. And when I first saw The Squid and the Whale a couple of years ago, I felt much the same as your husband. But upon re-watching it again recently, I think I was too quick to dismiss it. I still have a couple of criticisms that are not exactly minor, but I recognize I was wrong before and it is in fact a subtly powerful and well done film.

So maybe there’s hope for your husband, though I don’t know if he would be up for giving it a repeated viewing!

One criticism I still have … for me the bleakness and unpleasantness was piled on a bit thick. I really found it jarring to hear quite so much nasty language from the younger of the two boys early in the film, and the parents apparently having little objection to it. And I really don’t think I needed the episode of the boy spreading semen around the school. The essential pain the characters were undergoing due to the break-up of the family was enough. I think the director went for a bit too much shock value. But despite that flaw, the essential gist of the film was very good.

Well, anyway, I don’t know if any of this helps, but just some thoughts to offer.

[deleted]

It can be viewed as an attack on middle-class snobs/quazi-intellectuals.

Somebody here has been drinking and I'm sad to say it ain't me - Allan Francis Doyle

Look, I liked the movie because it was just one of those films you can watch and completely see as a real family. Everyone was flawed and technically no one was moral. I said before in some post that it made it more realistic. Just to restate I really really liked this movie, but I can see what your husband means. while watching the movie I did feel it had way too much of an indie feeling to it. Low budget and the kind of apathetic music. There's nothing wrong with it having an independent film, but if he doesn't like it, he doesn't like it. I know this happened a year ago, but he's your husband. You don't have to win every argument especially about a movie.

I wouldn't try to 'defend' it. We each see what we see.






Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me

I find it interesting that you describe your husband having his own opinion about something as 'stubborness'.