A showcase in New York City’s American Museum of Natural History features two monstrous creatures of the deep sea in a hostile embrace, a famed diorama entitled “Clash of the Titans.” Within The Squid and the Whale, this exists as a metaphorical reference to a crumbling modern family.

Packaged as a Special Edition, this DVD set does not live up to those standards; the enormity of scale and intense drama of the diorama holds no place within the extras.

A behind the scenes featurette entices little, with few clips of on-set, off-camera candidness. Instead, scenes from the actual movie provide lengthy interruptions, making any non-scripted quotes that much more off-putting.

Daniel Baldwin speaks of his adolescent co-star, Owen Kline, using every generic adjective possible to describe him, revealing, “He’s just such a well-rounded, bright, talented, sophisticated, mature kid — but yet, he’s still such a kid. It’s just so great to watch.”

As he wrote this brutally honest autobiographical screenplay, director Noah Baumbach expresses no desire to do a traditional commentary track, choosing to instead discuss certain elements of the movie over still-shots of the actors.

He states at the beginning of the commentary, “I feel I’m sort of not comfortable analyzing this movie, and I feel that if I really had more to say about the movie, I would have put it in the movie.” One then wonders why he includes over thirty-five chapters of him talking in a droll monotone, if not for his own interests.

The actual movie captures you in its tentacles; the special features blow, like stale air from a whale’s hole.