The New York accent of Noah Baumbach’s new film, which he wrote and directed, is a particular and familiar one. The resonances begin with its title. “The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)” takes a literary angle that indirectly suggests The New Yorker, J. D. Salinger and, to some extent, Woody Allen. Mr. Baumbach sticks with the short-story conceit throughout, but he uses it as both a guiding principle and a means to surprise.

After the quiet opening credits (delivered in a terribly genteel typeface), the first line of the first story appears: “Danny Meyerowitz was trying to park.” The movie cuts to a medium close-up of a mustachioed Adam Sandler at a steering wheel looking back over his shoulder and screaming his head off.