Local actor to speak at library film festival

Jesse Eisenberg, East Brunswick native and movie and stage actor, will introduce a showing of the prize-winning independent film in which he costars, "The Squid and the Whale," at 3 p.m. on Dec. 10 at the East Brunswick Public Library, Jean Walling Civic Center. Eisenberg will talk about the movie and his life as an actor before and after the film. Following the screening, he will entertain questions from the audience.

"The Squid and the Whale," directed by Noah Baumbach, is rated R and runs 88 minutes. Admission to the showing is free of charge. Reservations are not required.

The 2005 comedy-drama is the director's semiautobiographical tale of growing up in a dysfunctional family in 1980s Brooklyn, N.Y. Eisenberg plays Walt, the elder of the two sons of a newly divorced couple. The film won the New York Film Critics Award for best screenplay.

Eisenberg, who grew up and attended public school in East Brunswick, was nominated for an Independent Spirit and Broadcasting Film Critics Association Award.

The movie is part of the library's Fine Films series, sponsored by the Friends of the East Brunswick Library.

For more information, call Susan Sclar at (732) 390-6775.