The Squid and the Whale is one of my favorite films of the last 15=years!
I've included this film in a list I've compiled with a mini review I hope you can check it out;
http://www.imdb.com/list/ls003147667/?publish=save
It's funny, I saw this film many years ago and thought I remembered thinking well of it, but recently after seeing Marriage Story by Baumbach, I thought I would see this again since it is on NetFlix now. and I am watching it and I cannot believe how creepy it is, and yet there is like a tinge of honesty.
The father going off all the time. The mother's affairs. The kid rubbing against the bookshelf in the library, just one thing after another and I wonder what did I see in this before, or even what is it about. Someone spent a lot of time conceiving of this and writing it and then making it in a movie.
I am just minutes into it, so maybe I will realize by the end why this movie has some sort of value.