Did Success Spoil Noah Baumbach?

Malcolm, like many characters in Noah Baumbach’s films, is a bit delusional and thinks highly of himself, but he’s not entirely off base. Think of Bono – many people wonder what makes him an authority. This pattern appears in other Baumbach creations: Walt Berkman, a teenager who justified plagiarism by claiming he could have written the song himself; Roger Greenberg, a man who turned down a promising record deal because he felt it wasn’t artistically worthy and then wallowed in the consequences; Josh Srebnick, a filmmaker stuck on a years-long, uninspired documentary; and Harold Meyerowitz, an elderly sculptor who blames his lack of recognition on the superficiality of the art world. They all share a tendency to rationalize their failures by pointing fingers elsewhere.








