Marriage Story / YMMV

Alternate Character Interpretation:
- Is Nora a Well-Intentioned Extremist who genuinely feels a sense of kinship with Nicole and wants to do best by her, or a manipulative jackal who has merely pushed this narrative on her Extreme Doormat client in order to make her more compliant and further her own reputation as an attorney? Relatedly, how sympathetic is the audience meant to find her mothers-always-come-first views on parenting? Does she even believe it herself, or is she just saying it to manipulate Nicole?
- Is the court evaluator Obfuscating Stupidity, a Bunny-Ears Lawyer, or just plain incompetent?
Angst Aversion: Many people who have gotten divorced or have parents that got divorced don't want to watch this movie because they don't want to see a movie that'll remind them of their trauma. It doesn't help that both parents are deeply flawed and selfish characters trying to get custody of a young child that doesn't know better.
Award Snub:
- Both Scarlett Johansson and especially Adam Driver had plenty of people in their corner to win Oscars, which didn’t end up happening. Interestingly enough, even that year’s Best Actor winner seemed to be rooting for Driver, as Joaquin Phoenix said when he won at that year's Screen Actors Guild Awards that Driver should’ve been up onstage instead.
- Despite all his acclaim, Noah Baumbach was left out of the director's lineup, with many claiming that he was snubbed just because his work wasn't as flashy as his competitors.
Diagnosed by the Audience: While it's claimed that Henry is "off the charts" in math, he's still struggling to read at age 9. He also comes across as immature and socially undeveloped, tends to avoid eye contact, and becomes intensely focused on his imaginary games. This led some fans to speculate about him having autism and/or a learning disability like dyslexia.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Alan Alda as Bert; a warm and intelligent figure who stands completely at odds with the other Glory Hound Amoral Attorneys, actually going into the proceedings trying to do what’s best for Henry.
Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Saying that the movie is just two unhappy people shouting at each other for two hours. An influx of this type of comment hit social media after the film's release despite the fact it only applies to the film's Signature Scene, and the rest of the film showcases an amiable divorce slowly becoming a complete blowout.
He Really Can Act:
- If anyone still doubted Scarlett Johansson's acting abilities, this movie should prove them wrong.
- Adam Driver as well. Also, who knew that he could sing so well?
Hype Backlash: The film experienced some backlash after it became part of the aggressive awards season campaigning, mostly because of how incredibly palpable it was in this film's case, which sometimes extended to people making a fuss about such mind-blowing details of the film as the fact that "one of their argument scenes was entirely scripted."
Memetic Mutation:
- The signature argument in Charlie's apartment. It has been given the captioning meme treatment, a fan dub with Mickey Mouse as Nicole and Goofy as Charlie, not to mention that lots of people had fun with the screengrab of one of Charlie's lines, filling in whatever they wanted after "Every day I wake up". These tend to immediately follow with the screengrab of him hitting the wall and him crying, though occasionally they're followed by Nicole hugging him.
- Adam Driver Holding Your Favorite Album is a Twitter feed where one particular screencap of Charlie is edited to make him seem like he's holding up an album cover, such as the Hamilton cast recording or a My Chemical Romance album.
- The movie caught the attention of BIONICLE fans when it was discovered that Skull Basher appears as a toy Henry plays with (even more so when the line is directly namedropped, suggesting the prop choice was not at random). Cue jokes and memes about how people are only watching the movie for the very brief and minor reference.
- How It Should Have Ended said that this is a movie where Kylo Ren fights with Black Widow, and the Avengers are pissed since this movie was nominated for Oscars.
- The scene of Nicole dancing has been used as a reaction GIF for whenever something good happens, usually in the context of stereotypes of white women.
- This image◊ of Nicole looking exhausted from crying made the rounds as a reaction image.
- A pic of Adam Driver during the infamous argument scene followed by a picture of Grogu peaking over the edge of his cradle is often used as a variation of the Woman Yelling at a Cat meme.
Signature Scene:
- Charlie's heartfelt karaoke performance of "Being Alive" from the soundtrack to Stephen Sondheim's Company. Not to mention that it shows that Adam Driver really can sing.
- The infamous argument in Charlie's unfurnished apartment has become this, to the point that many who haven't seen the movie think it's mostly just two unhappy people shouting at each other.
Squick: Charlie demonstrating his "knife trick" with his keychain Xacto knife to the court observer. While nothing more than a simple magic trick, he's so anxious to impress her and win custody of Henry that he slices his forearm for real. While initially played for laughs as he tries to play it cool, the scene quickly turns gruesome as he rushes to wash his dripping arm, fruitlessly attempting to cover it with a single Band-Aid, then faintly collapsing to the ground from blood loss. Complete with Henry entering the kitchen soon after, completely oblivious. It comes out of nowhere and can be quite intense.
The Scrappy: Nora. She assumes that mothers deserve custody by default and that fathers deserve absolutely nothing despite the fact that Charlie, although self-centered, is far from the awful father she thinks he is. This belief is very dated and sexist, though unfortunately this mindset still exists in the custody system in real life. Additionally, she also went behind Nicole's back by making it so that Nicole be the one who will have more time with Henry, even though Nicole herself stated that she wanted 50/50 custody. To make it even worse, she did all of that purely for bragging rights.
Spiritual Successor: To Kramer vs. Kramer, another drama film about an affluent family's divorce.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Both Charlie and Nicole are self-centered people that barely register the lives of others outside their own sphere of interests and needs, which makes it frustrating to watch, as both of them are deeply flawed as a single-parent material. Each of them trying to "win" their divorce makes them look even more self-centered.
Values Dissonance: In certain countries, depending on how child custody works in case of divorce, Nora's Crusading Lawyer can easily turn her into an outright Scrappy, simply because she assumes mothers deserve the child by default and fathers should screw themselves, which is a rather sexist argument. Unfortunately, this mindset is fairly realistic in at least the Western custody system.

YMMV / Marriage Story

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