His kids -- Danny (Adam Sandler), an unemployed musician whose own marriage has collapsed; Matthew (Ben Stiller), a divorced entertainment manager, impatient and seething with bitterness; and Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), a mousey functionary with buried artistic aspirations -- are half-siblings with diametrically opposed careers but very similar temperaments, each jealously claiming and/or rejecting a part of their prickly dad.

When disputes arise over family matters, from the prospective sale of Harold's house to a medical emergency, the siblings clash in ways that peel the scabs off long-festering psychic and emotional wounds.

Writer-director Noah Baumbach, whose credits include "The Squid and the Whale," "Margot at the Wedding," "Frances Ha" and "Greenberg" (as well as the screenplay for Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox"), has often examined the tremulous, strained relationships within families -- bitter parents, jealous siblings -- and the flighty search for freedom from the obligations (and protective comforts) of home.

Baumbach structures this film like the interconnected tales of a printed collection of short stories, each presented with its own title card, and each revealing a particular character in greater relief (and from their particular, neurotic vantage point).

In addition, Marvel, Van Patten, Judd Hirsch (as an artist-friend of Harold's with a much higher profile), and Rebecca Miller as an old acquaintance of Danny's who seems just out of reach, add their own bits of sparkle, as does composer and songwriter Randy Newman.