Did Success Spoil Noah Baumbach?

"In Noah Baumbach's 2007 movie Margot at the Wedding, Jack Black's character, a would-be painter, former musician, and general layabout named Malcolm, is accused by his fiancée of being competitive with everyone. "It doesn't even matter if they do the same thing as you," she says. "He's competitive with Bono." Malcolm concedes the point, explaining, "I don't subscribe to the credo that there's enough room for everyone to be successful. I think there are only a few spots available" - and people like Bono are taking them up. The implication is that, were it not for the tragic injustice of the limited-spots situation, Malcolm would be recognized for being as talented, if not more, than the lead singer of one of the biggest rock bands in the world."

"Malcolm is a typical Baumbach character: delusional and ludicrously self-important, yet not totally wrong either. (Who has not heard Bono speak and thought, Why him?) Others cut in the same mold include Walt Berkman (Jesse Eisenberg) from 2005's The Squid and the Whale, a teenager who rationalizes his plagiarizing of a Pink Floyd song by saying, "I felt I could have written it"; Roger Greenberg (played by frequent Baumbach collaborator Ben Stiller) of 2010's Greenberg, a middle-aged misanthrope living in the long aftermath of a ruinous decision in his youth to turn down a major record deal because it wasn't good enough for him; Josh Srebnick (Stiller) of 2014's While We're Young, a struggling filmmaker who has toiled for years on a dull documentary about "how power works in America"; and Harold Meyerowitz (Dustin Hoffman) of 2017's The Meyerowitz Stories, an elderly sculptor blaming his obscurity on the shallow philistinism of the art world: "I think I would have had greater success if I'd been more fashionable.""

A recurring character type centers on men who believe the world has failed to recognize their talent. One example is a would-be painter who insists there are only a few spots available, so famous figures occupy the opportunities he deserves. Other examples include a teenager who rationalizes plagiarism by claiming he could have written the song, a middle-aged man haunted by a declined record deal, a filmmaker stalled on an uninspired documentary, and an elderly sculptor who blames his obscurity on the art world's philistinism. These men resent the world for not affirming their genius.

Read at Vulture