Noah Baumbach has been making movies for twenty years now, and they ve nearly always been comedies of the sort that I call radio with pictures not because of any inherent lack of filmmaking skill (he s quite a good director) but because his characters are often so deluded or bitter or ignorant or self-aggrandizing or otherwise unpleasant that I find myself watching certain scenes through the cracks between my fingers. Kicking and Screaming, Mr. Jealousy, The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding and Greenberg were all picture-radio incarnate: astute at detailing the sorts of people you try to avoid at parties (or who try to avoid you, maybe?) and at times unnervingly willing to stick the knife into characters, and you, and twist it.