# The Meyerowitz Stories
**The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)** is a 2017 American comedy-drama written and directed by [Noah Baumbach](https://www.edgepedia.org/noah-baumbach), in which three adult siblings, Danny ([Adam Sandler](https://www.edgepedia.org/adam-sandler)), Matthew ([Ben Stiller](https://www.edgepedia.org/ben-stiller)), and Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), contend with the long shadow cast by their aging, strong-willed father Harold Meyerowitz (Dustin Hoffman), a retired sculptor and art professor whose career never matched his own estimate of it[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-acquires-noah-baumbachs-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-from-iac-films). The film premiered In Competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, Baumbach's first time in the festival's Competition, and was released by Netflix on October 13, 2017[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2017/the-meyerowitz-stories-noah-baumbach-observes-the-passage-of-time/) • [3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_meyerowitz_stories).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Noah Baumbach, original screenplay[4](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80174434) |
| Principal cast | Adam Sandler (Danny), Ben Stiller (Matthew), Dustin Hoffman (Harold), Elizabeth Marvel (Jean), Emma Thompson (Maureen), Grace Van Patten (Eliza)[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-acquires-noah-baumbachs-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-from-iac-films) |
| Festival premiere | In Competition, 70th Cannes Film Festival, 2017; Baumbach's first Competition entry[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2017/the-meyerowitz-stories-noah-baumbach-observes-the-passage-of-time/) |
| Release | Netflix, October 13, 2017, with a limited theatrical release the same day[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_meyerowitz_stories) |
| Runtime | 110 minutes per the Cannes festival record; 112 minutes in several US listings[5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/) • [6](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected) |
| Key crew | Randy Newman (music), Jennifer Lame (editing), Robbie Ryan (cinematography)[5](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/) |
| Reception | 92% Tomatometer from 186 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore of 80 from 41 critic reviews on Metacritic[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_meyerowitz_stories) • [7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and characters
The story gathers the estranged Meyerowitz family in New York around a career retrospective celebrating Harold's work[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_meyerowitz_stories). Harold is a retired art professor and once-promising sculptor, described by the Cannes festival record as an aging artist whose estranged children come together to celebrate him[2](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2017/the-meyerowitz-stories-noah-baumbach-observes-the-passage-of-time/). He taught at [Bard College](https://www.edgepedia.org/bard-college) for more than three decades, an achievement that does not salve his wounded ego[6](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected).
**The siblings.** Danny, the product of Harold's first marriage, is a former musician and househusband whose daughter Eliza ([Grace Van Patten](https://www.edgepedia.org/grace-van-patten)) is leaving for her freshman year at Bard, the college where Harold taught; Danny dotes on her and treats her like a best friend[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/meyerowitz-stories-new-selected-review-bittersweet-brutal-stories-family-life). He is separated from his wife, without a job or a place to live, and temporarily moves in with Harold[9](https://time.com/4787720/adam-sandler-the-meyerowitz-stories/). Jean, also from the first marriage, is a project manager at Xerox whom Harold ignores to such a degree that she barely feels like a member of the family[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/meyerowitz-stories-new-selected-review-bittersweet-brutal-stories-family-life) • [10](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-cannes-review/5118272.article). Matthew, Harold's half-brother son by his second wife Julia ([Candice Bergen](https://www.edgepedia.org/candice-bergen)), is a successful, wealthy Los Angeles business manager and financial adviser on whose behalf Harold inserts his name into nearly every sentence[9](https://time.com/4787720/adam-sandler-the-meyerowitz-stories/) • [11](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-familial-furies-of-noah-baumbachs-the-meyerowitz-stories). Harold's fourth wife, Maureen ([Emma Thompson](https://www.edgepedia.org/emma-thompson)), is a newly sober alcoholic given to artsy caftans[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/meyerowitz-stories-new-selected-review-bittersweet-brutal-stories-family-life) • [9](https://time.com/4787720/adam-sandler-the-meyerowitz-stories/).
The action, structured in chapters, unfolds in New York City and its environs over several months, around a potential exhibition of Harold's art at his former workplace, the sale of the family apartment, and Eliza's start at college[6](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected) • [8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/meyerowitz-stories-new-selected-review-bittersweet-brutal-stories-family-life). A medical crisis reroutes the family's routines midway through the film: Harold undergoes emergency brain surgery for an undetected subdural hematoma, and the siblings gather at his bedside[11](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-familial-furies-of-noah-baumbachs-the-meyerowitz-stories). In Jean's own chapter, she reveals that she suffered sexually predatory behavior from one of her father's colleagues when she was an adolescent, a monologue that darkens the film's remainder[12](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4988-nyff-2017-noah-baumbach-s-the-meyerowitz-stories).
## Structure and style
The bracketed subtitle is literal: the film is divided into chapters presented as title cards, each a "story" devoted to one family member's perspective, with time jumps between them[10](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-cannes-review/5118272.article) • [13](https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/meyerowitz-stories-the). Baumbach said he began writing the script in 2014 and that the structure came from a single idea: "what if this is a collection of stories by some made-up author who wrote them over the course of his career?" Splitting the brothers into their own vignettes, he said, made the writing easier[14](https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/noah-baumbach-stops-by-for-a-close-read-of-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/).
The film's texture comes from overlapping dialogue and abrupt cutting. [Randy Newman](https://www.edgepedia.org/randy-newman) supplied a melodic piano score, while editor Jennifer Lame frequently jump-cuts characters off mid-sentence, a combination one [Sight and Sound](https://www.edgepedia.org/sight-and-sound) review described as the film treading a line between the gentle and the brutal[8](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/meyerowitz-stories-new-selected-review-bittersweet-brutal-stories-family-life). Baumbach told the Los Angeles Times that the dialogue's effect depends on rhythm: "A lot of it comes from the rhythms of the dialogue and getting the overlaps at the right point, and it becomes kind of musical in that way"[15](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-mn-noah-baumbach-20171129-story.html).
## Production and release
Netflix acquired global rights from IAC Films on April 10, 2017, with plans for a premiere in select theaters and on the streaming service in late 2017[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-acquires-noah-baumbachs-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-from-iac-films). The film was produced by [Scott Rudin](https://www.edgepedia.org/scott-rudin), Baumbach, Lila Yacoub, and Eli Bush[4](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80174434). At Cannes it was one of two Netflix originals, alongside Bong Joon Ho's *Okja*, to premiere In Competition at the 70th edition, the festival's first [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) selections from Netflix originals[16](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-original-films-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-and-okja-to-premiere-in-competition-at-the-70th-edition-of-cannes-film-festival). The pairing provoked a public clash with jury president [Pedro Almodóvar](https://www.edgepedia.org/pedro-almodovar), who argued that festival films should be made for big screens rather than streaming; afterward Cannes required competing films to commit to French theatrical distribution, and a French law barring streamers from showing a film for 36 months after theatrical release effectively blocked Netflix films from future festivals[17](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-2017).
The film also screened in the Main Slate of the 55th [New York Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-film-festival)[18](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2017/films/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/). Although the story places Eliza at Bard College, those scenes were filmed at [Sarah Lawrence College](https://www.edgepedia.org/sarah-lawrence-college) in [Bronxville, New York](https://www.edgepedia.org/bronxville-new-york)[17](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-2017). NetflixMovies lists the budget as $11 million[17](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-2017).
## Reception
Critical response was strongly positive. Rotten Tomatoes records a 92% Tomatometer across 186 reviews, with a critics consensus crediting Baumbach's "bittersweet lens" and "the impressive efforts of a remarkable cast"; the audience Popcornmeter stood at 72% from more than 5,000 ratings[3](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_meyerowitz_stories). Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 80 based on 41 critic reviews, with 98% of counted reviews positive[7](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/).
**Performances drew particular notice.** Reviewers repeatedly singled out Adam Sandler's dramatic turn as Danny; the Village Voice's Bilge Ebiri called it "the performance of his life," and RogerEbert.com's review stated the film "shockingly belongs to Sandler, who is absolutely fantastic"[12](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4988-nyff-2017-noah-baumbach-s-the-meyerowitz-stories). Anthony Lane, writing in The New Yorker, called it "Baumbach's ripest and wisest film to date, alert to the fact that so little in life, especially a screwy or a super-ambitious life, is open to resolution"[19](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-and-wonderstruck). The film received one award nomination, for Best Actor in a Comedy Movie at the 2018 Critics' Choice awards[20](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/movies/the-meyerowitz-stories).
## Place in Baumbach's work
Critics consistently read the film as a companion piece to Baumbach's 2005 breakthrough *The Squid and the Whale*, his semi-autobiographical story of a dysfunctional New York intellectual family. Richard Brody of The New Yorker called it "both a remake of and a sequel to" the earlier film, noting that in both, the children of a frustrated artist have their lives damaged by their father's egotism; where that film's patriarch was a writer, Harold is a sculptor[11](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-familial-furies-of-noah-baumbachs-the-meyerowitz-stories). The Criterion Collection's NYFF roundup described it as another story of two siblings reeling from their father's ruinous presence, climaxing with a symbolic museum trip, this time to the Whitney[12](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4988-nyff-2017-noah-baumbach-s-the-meyerowitz-stories). Baumbach himself framed the film's theme in terms of loss: from *Frances Ha* (2012) to *The Meyerowitz Stories* (2017), he said, his characters regain part of their humanity through experiences of loss, pursuing "the gap between the ideal self and the real self"[21](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2025/12/07/noah-baumbach-director-of-jay-kelly-and-analyst-of-neuroses_6748249_30.html).
## References
1. [Netflix Acquires Noah Baumbach's 'The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)' from IAC Films, About Netflix](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-acquires-noah-baumbachs-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-from-iac-films)
2. [The Meyerowitz Stories: Noah Baumbach observes the passage of time, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2017/the-meyerowitz-stories-noah-baumbach-observes-the-passage-of-time/)
3. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_meyerowitz_stories)
4. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Netflix Media Center](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/80174434)
5. [THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED), Festival de Cannes film page](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/)
6. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) Parents' Guide, Common Sense Media](https://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected)
7. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/)
8. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) review, Sight and Sound (BFI)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/meyerowitz-stories-new-selected-review-bittersweet-brutal-stories-family-life)
9. [The Meyerowitz Stories Proves (Again) That There's a Good Adam Sandler, Time](https://time.com/4787720/adam-sandler-the-meyerowitz-stories/)
10. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected): Cannes Review, Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-cannes-review/5118272.article)
11. [The Familial Furies of Noah Baumbach's "The Meyerowitz Stories," The New Yorker (Richard Brody)](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-familial-furies-of-noah-baumbachs-the-meyerowitz-stories)
12. [NYFF 2017: Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4988-nyff-2017-noah-baumbach-s-the-meyerowitz-stories)
13. [Meyerowitz Stories, The, Reelviews Movie Reviews](https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/meyerowitz-stories-the)
14. [Noah Baumbach Gives Us a Close-Read of 'The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected),' Film Independent](https://www.filmindependent.org/blog/noah-baumbach-stops-by-for-a-close-read-of-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/)
15. [Noah Baumbach's cross-generational film, 'The Meyerowitz Stories,' Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/la-en-mn-noah-baumbach-20171129-story.html)
16. [Netflix Original Films 'The Meyerowitz Stories' and 'Okja' to Premiere In Competition at the 70th Edition of Cannes, About Netflix](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-original-films-the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-and-okja-to-premiere-in-competition-at-the-70th-edition-of-cannes-film-festival)
17. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017) on Netflix, NetflixMovies.com](https://www.netflixmovies.com/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-2017)
18. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), Film Society of Lincoln Center / NYFF](https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2017/films/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected/)
19. ["The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)" and "Wonderstruck," The New Yorker (Anthony Lane)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/23/the-meyerowitz-stories-new-and-selected-and-wonderstruck)
20. [The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017), What's After the Movie](https://www.whatsafterthemovie.com/movies/the-meyerowitz-stories)
21. [Noah Baumbach, director of 'Jay Kelly' and analyst of neuroses, Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2025/12/07/noah-baumbach-director-of-jay-kelly-and-analyst-of-neuroses_6748249_30.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2017 to 2018 › Titles K to W*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license