I have chosen the two words in my thread title very carefully: "freakin' " & "funny".

Both apply equally to this black, black comedy.

It is seriously twisted fun. Eeeps! And I had little hope for the director after his needlessly dour Squid and the Whale - - but, whaddayaknow? - - he pulls a masterpiece out of his ass for his "sophomore" creation. It's great... well I mean, it's sick... errrr... real... err... gawd knows... ... ...

This is the kinda real life dysfunction we all experience in peripheral avenues of our own families, yet so seldom graces the screen. Yow! It's a dirty secret, alright. But not anymore, now that they done gone and made a movie out of it!

I've been a crazy Nicole Kidman fanboy since I first glimpsed her in the first run of Dead Calm, so what can I say?

Pretty much the same goes for Jennifer Jason Leigh, though her trail's been somewhat more wending since I set eyes on her in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

And even Jack Black, who I usually have a very limited taste for, deported himself quite tidily here.

What a surprise!



EXTRAORDINARY.

One of my parents' friends saw this, and he said that while he's sure people who haven't experienced anything like what this film deals with will enjoy it, it was far too reminiscent of the worst parts of his childhood for him to enjoy. He also thought Jack Black was out of place. He thought Kidman and Leigh were great, though.

Many (most?) people have a dysfunctional family - - some of them choose to deal with it by laughing and some of them choose to deal with it by crying. Personally, I prefer the former...

it wasn't just that it was dysfunctional to him [he loved Little Miss Sunshine, for instance], but he said that it far too seriously handled things that mirrored things that happened during his childhood. He said that as a result, he just got a buncha bad memories to return instead of enjoying a nice bizarre-family story.

I hated Squid and the Whale, but I'll still see this.

Probably finally catching this later today.

Well, that was strange.
I liked it, but I'm not sure "Freakin' Funny" is at all an appropriate response (regardless of the quality of the film).
Bradford, this time your reaction doesn't so much confuse/amuse me as it scares me.

Heresy!

i thoroughly enjoyed the dark nature of this film, though Noah must change it up a little, his style will become tiresome, it was way too close to the squid and the whale in terms of layout and plot.