Thursday, April 29, 2010

Greenberg quotes that made me cry laughing...

Sure, I haven't been blogging for a looooong time. I know. I'm sorry. I'm raising two kids under 5 and trying to stay sane. Writing usually does the trick, but lately, I'm trying to write things of meaning. That's not panning out so well, so I will go back to my fun stuff. Commentary. Today, specifically, I want to applaud the genius of Noah Baumbach's direction and writing, as well as Ben Stiller. His portrayal in GREENBERG was shockingly deep and perfect.

The movie is about a New-Yorker, recently out of the hospital after a nervous breakdown. He house sits in LA and finds himself in a desperate but very honest display of the human need to connect and not feel alone with his brother's 25 year old assistant. The plot is somewhat relevant, but way more interesting is all the beautiful awkward, and all too common moments of life that, well, just happen. Stiller has a haunting way of being neurotic and self-consumed, yet thoughtful and full of heightened awareness. I laughed literally every five minutes. Some times it was how biting his tongue was, others were the strange irony and weirdness of over communication or lack there of. Most of the time it was at the attempt of apathy in the face of his true disappointment and how brooding and deflecting is not really funny, but somehow Ben Stiller finds away to translate the dark into humorous and smart.

Some of my favorite quotes (rough, since from memory) from Greenberg:

Roger Greenberg: "This is why I don't f'ing go out....I can't find ONE movie I like at a multiplex, or I go to a Starbucks and I LIKE the music they're playing..."

Roger Greenberg: "Why are all the grown men dressed like kids, and the kids are dressed like super heros?"

Roger Greenberg: "No! No! No! See!? This is why I should be dating a 38 year old divorcee with teen kids and low expectations!"

This movie is clearly not for everybody. A good friend told me I'm either very observant or a little more warped then most for laughing as hard as I did, as frequently as I did. It was sincere to me. I honestly, believe Stiller's character, yet because the dialogue was so smart and so TRUE, it met in a perfect place of levity. It feels a bit like Woody Allen, but so contemporary and wistful of the past.

Stiller is notable for showing true discontentment with how things have turned out. Great music references, movie references (Wall Street- Charlie Sheen moment of hilarity), and he oscillates between being proud of his indifference, to being truly embarrassed. His letters of complaints merely scratch the surface of how disgruntled he has become, yet Ben Stiller plays the role so well you want to hug him or smack him on the back of the head and hand him a beer. There is a little bit of him in all of us. Some are just more comfortable admitting it.