Greenberg (Noah Baumbach, 2010)

[mfunk9786]

Stiller is still a muscular, handsome, put-together guy - and I just couldn't buy him growing up with so much ironic detachment and resentment. And I figure that's the reason why he overacted and made the character more detestable than he was on the page. But that's just speculation, of course.

[Lemmy Caution]

My oh my, I didn't realize that Noah Baumbach was the son of Jonathan Baumbach, author, professor and founder of the Fiction Collective. I've read about half his novels and am a huge fan of Reruns, in which the lead character sits down on the toilet to reinvent his life and his imaginings become entangled in film memories, so that the appearance of vampires in one scene is somewhat routine. It's a wild ride with touches of surrealism ("Special Today: Uptown Train on Downtown Tracks!" -- which I always think of when bureaucracy runs amok) and full of sentences containing their own contradictions.
Reruns also became a holy grail book, after I lent out my copy and it got passed around into oblivion. (Finally found a copy at the great Powell's in Portland after years of searching).

My Father More or Less is another interesting work of meta-fiction, involving a screen play which is/isn't being written.
His writing, or at least fictive concerns, is somewhat similar to Donald Barthelme (though it's been some time since I've read him).
Jonathan Baumbach was also a film critic for Partisan Review 1974-83.
(Is anyone familiar with his film criticism?)
And apparently Dad played the role of a professor in Kicking and Screaming, which is probably the only thing which would get me to re-watch that.

More info on Pere Baumbach here.
If anyone wants to read some Jonathan Baumbach, 10 of the 15 stories collected in The Life and Times of Major Fiction are online here at google books.
There is a definite father-son resemblance -- just give Noah a professorly beard:



Greenberg, yes ... carry on ...

[LQ]

Sometimes the better actor isn't the better answer and I think this is one of those times. Both Stiller and Gerwig, as mentioned before in her case, are phenomenal with their characters. If only because I seem to be the only one here who liked Stiller's performance I'll give him his dues. He brings a relateable creepiness to a horror villain/protagonist like role. He hits this slimy pathetic note without turning things into caricature. This is truly his best performance ever and the only one I've seen where he fully melts into the character. I think this is best shown in the scene where he is talking to his brother on the phone. He's not the good guy of the conversation if one could be parsed out, yet his actions are within a throwing distance of understandable. I'm probably just rambling now, but oh well. For me at least this is Baumbach's best yet.

I'm firmly in knives' camp concerning Stiller. Ruffalo, no matter how great an actor, has a soft face, an inherent sincerity that I think would have sabotaged his work here. Stiller's face is cold, cut, impassive and hostile at the same moment...even if he is an attractive, put-together guy, he is perfect in the role. And c'mon, if that's going to be your reason for not buying his character- attractive people can certainly be jaded, cynical and self-involved...perhaps even more so than your average Joe Schmo!
I thought he was great. Thoroughly detestable, but great. However, the real star for me as it was for others was Greta Gerwig, and she's the reason I loved the movie much more than any other Baumbach films I've seen (although it may not be his "best"). He always nails these intensely real and recognizable personalities, but never have I seen one on-screen that I actually liked. Her humble sincerity and openness to life and love was immediately endearing; her "are you gonna let me in?" spoken aloud in her car in the beginning was a perfect encapsulation of her entire being. She just wants Stiller to let her in.
I know I should probably cut back on all my Joanna Newsom simpering, but as I walked out of the theatre I thought of "Easy", and how perfectly Greta Gerwig fit that song. And how ...sad that was, wasting such on Stiller.

[Matt]

Baumbach and Stiller are scheduled to be on Charlie Rose "for the hour" tonight (3/31). If you miss it, you can watch it online for free (as with all previous CR shows).

[Finch]

Stiller interviewed by the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/may ... ink-comedy" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[domino harvey]

DVD/Blu-ray July 13

[Fiery Angel]

DVD/Blu-ray July 13

that goes immediately in the worst covers thread

[AttitudeAJM]

Its not a good sign when critic quotes litter the front cover. Its almost like a desperate plea to give the movie a chance .

P.S.

I haven't seen the movie and I'm not jumping to a conclusion that it is bad. I'm just saying that I've noticed movies that litter their box art with quotes are usually ones that are lacking in some areas.

[knives]

Or the ones put out by Focus. As bad as this is it has nothing on their Milk disc.

[Oedipax]

I thought this was fantastic - a return of the Baumbach I was thrilled by in The Squid and the Whale and could hardly detect in Margot at the Wedding which, I suppose, I ought to see again sometime. Stiller and Gerwig were both perfect for their roles in ways I don't think Adams or Ruffalo in particular would have been. It's easily Baumbach's funniest film to date, with a lot of the painful laughter of self-recognition coming from the Greenberg character (I hope that doesn't say something terrible about me). The house party sequence where he's talking with the twenty-year-olds had me in stitches, and the earlier children's party was an equally astute (and funny) depiction of agoraphobia.

Baumbach's style has become more restrained in the sense that he's relying much less on the handheld and letting scenes play out in wider shots than the last couple films. Harris Savides continues refining a naturalistic style of lighting that is not flashy in the least, but quite beautiful at times (the shot of Greenberg on his brother's bed, leaving an audio-letter for Florence, for instance, lit by two practical lamps in Kubrickian fashion).

I look forward to many future viewings of this one, and for now it's got a solid place on my purely theoretical top 10 for this year.

[James Mills]

I'm really happy I finally got around to this, as I've been wanting to see it for a long while now. If The Squid and the Whale was Baumbach's semiautobiographical recount of his teenage youth, I feel like Greenberg might be his mid-life equivalent. Roger Greenberg's character is so well defined, from his neurosis, repugnance, and entitled veneer, all seemingly to guard his insecurities, that his development feels empirical and personal. The choice to give him an entirely antithetical romantic interest is brilliant, as Florence is modest, unassuming, and in touch with her shortcomings and regrets, all punctuating the emotional anxieties of Roger that have predicated his estrangement from society.

Some of the funniest moments of Baumbach's films seem to be arbitrary ones that might not have even been in the original script. Such directorial touches are abundant in Greenberg, like the maid turning on the vacuum during his phone call, or running the same joke again unexpectedly (daringly choosing not to follow it up with another to appease the "rules of three" in Hollywood cinema), the clapping at the dinner scene or Roger's "Assholes" comment when strolling through the hungover living room. Like Todd Solondz, Baumbach has this keen sense for adding humorous connotations that not only illicit interest in the dialogue (strengthened with some effective jump cuts), but also contextualize the deliverer's character. I believe that this form of humor works better for Baumbach than his more presentational/slapstick scenes, as the convoluted party scene comes off a tad too indulgent leading up to Roger's breakthrough.

Roger's breakthrough itself stems from a journey of mercurial introspection, both from himself and from the viewer. Baumbach chooses to omit any redeeming qualities of Roger for the entire first act, thus we're allotted an outsider's view of just how insufferable this man would appear to a common stranger. We see him failing miserably and universally, from swimming, to house sitting, to being funny or "hip" with his former friends and crushes, all the while maintaining his pomposity. Because of this, some interactions between other characters come across as forced, as it's hard not to wonder "why would anyone be this man's friend, let alone be attracted to him?" in some scenes. However, the performances by Stiller and Gerwig are so comfortable and susceptible to their surroundings that, by the end of the film, their characters' personalities seem to justify these initial interactions. I think the real issue that stems from Roger's early mockery is that a few of the middle scenes seem to drag, as I had already lost interest in this seemingly irredeemable curmudgeon. While the complaint seems minor in description, losing the audience's interest is a big detraction for me from an otherwise brilliant film.

What I liked most about Greenberg was its honesty. Just as it takes a ton of courage from Baumbach to flagrantly display his own character flaws filmically, it takes a certain degree of courage from the viewer themselves to look past Greenberg's humor and identify with what similar ways we alienate ourselves from society; what excuses we make for our failures and regrets. Greenberg serves as a personal reminder that it's ok to be wrong sometimes, a resonant morale that I could certainly use reminding of.