pushing limits

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Hopefully, I will never see another movie with a kid masturbating and wiping his goods on library books.

Yes, it was disturbing and so is the reality of our lives. I'm glad there are movies out there like L.I.E., Kids and TSATW. Many writers may use a scene like that simply for shock value, and it was shocking, but it was written and included to convey how mixed up these kids really were. It's a great movie that pulls at the tensions of sexuality, relationships and the absolute mess of it all with excellent dialogue and acting.

Push the limits, sure, but it's gotta mean something.

Anyway, good luck.

I also found some of those scenes pushing me out of the movie and into considering the young actor who was playing the scene. So I'd say there is at least one reason to hold back a bit as a writer which is to NOT push your audience so far that the actor becomes their concern instead of the character. If I were reading this as a book I'd have no problem with the storyline so I don't think it went too far from the perspective of the story itself. But the extra dimension of the young actor does make a difference (or at least it did to me).

The actor's father is Kevin Kline. I think a kid who came from an acting family would better be able to deal with acting intense scenes than just some amateur they picked off the street for the part.

I completely agree with you. I'm trying to imagine if the actor were my son. I think I would object that he was being asked to portray such things.

But without even considering the actor, I would argue that from a dramatic perspective, the incidents were a misguided choice of the writer/director. To the movie's credit, it does a fantastic job of portraying the subtleties of emotion of a family experiencing a traumatic break-up. For me, that was enough. It was almost overwhelmed by the sensationalism of events in the movie that called undue attention due to their sheer gross and unpleasant nature.

Still a very good film. But less would have been more as regards some the unpleasant developments.

Assuming you're talking about the masturbation scenes...
I was uncomfortable when those scenes were playing too, but if I think about it rationally, I don't think there's any issue with having the actor play those scenes. He was 14 at the time, and it seems silly to object to him pretending to do what we all know adolescent boys spend most of their free time actually doing. Usually in a more private manner, of course.

I am sure that anybody who has viewed this film is aware with those scenes of which you speak; however, specific examples of those (the alcohol, the ejaculate) which you thought went overboard would have been valuable to understanding your position. Surely the scenes in which Frank wipes his semen over books and a locker were disturbing, but there are those who think the self-harm which accompanies a child drinking alcohol is of greater severity.

That said, I must say that I do not believe the film would have been as good [I gave it nine out of ten stars] had Noah Baumbach not included those scenes. It was not done so much for shock as to give us insight into Frank's upbringing and emotions. Indeed, if anything, I'd argue that they were underplayed, and too much attention given to Walt. 80 minutes was not a long enough duration for so profound a film.