A friend and I were talking about how, for those whose parents remained married, Noam Baumbach’s new film plays as a charming coming-of-age comedy. But for children of divorced parents, The Squid and the Whale seems to come off as a harrowing and painful relationship drama. I’m in the former camp, so I appreciated the excellent direction and acting (particularly by Jeff Daniels), the film’s balance between irony and affection, and its concise, purposeful pacing. It’s like an elegant novella extracted from a well-remembered life.