I don’t think any filmmaker has such a disastrous record with me than Noah Baumbach. It’s not bad enough that I hate nearly every moment of his awful films, but that each seems like they should appeal to me. “Oh, this looks interesting,” I say. “Maybe Baumbach has made something good this time.”
He has not.
I hated the Baumbach-written and -directed Margot at the Wedding. He wrote Fantastic Mr. Fox and even though I’ve directed most of the blame for that huge letdown of a film toward Wes Anderson, all the dialogue problems I had in Fox are apparent in other Baumbach films more than Anderson’s. And their earlier collaboration, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, was also pretty awful. I hated his latest directorial and writing effort, Greenberg.
Ben Stiller plays Roger Greenberg, an aimless 40ish man fresh from from a stay in a mental institute. He heads to L.A. to house sit for his successful brother. While there he looks up his old friends, who have matured and moved on with their lives while he has not. Though, because it’s a Baumbach film, none of these friends are happy. Greenberg also strikes up a relationship with his brother’s nanny, Florence, played by Greta Gerwig. She’s much younger but also directionless. There’s no reason for them to be together, yet they each awkwardly pursue each other while he does something incredibly mean to her every fifteen minutes or so.
Save for one mini-revelation at the end, the plot goes nowhere and nobody changes. Including me, as I turned it off neither enlightened nor entertained.
As I’ve said time and again, a film choosing to be character rather than plot driven is fine with me. A quiet character study has a solid chance of charming me. It does help when the characters aren’t big self-made losers that are incredibly painful to watch, however. Characters need more characteristics than “whiny,” “mopey,” and “miserable.”
And the dialogue! Oh goodness, the dialogue. Sometimes I feel like Baumbach starts with a bunch of pithy observations then writes a plot around them. “Laughing already demonstrates appreciation,” Greenberg says when seeing a man clapping while laughing. “The applause just seems superfluous.” Fine, that’s a mildly amusing observation. But it’s also apropros of nothing in the scene and immediately forgotten. It reminds me of what I said about Margot at the Wedding, that the characters talk at each other instead of to each other. Greenberg doesn’t seem to have conversations. He says something and someone responds, perhaps on topic and perhaps not, then he says something unrelated. None of these discussions go anywhere, or at least not anywhere interesting.
I’m concerned that with Baumbach’s pedigree and the film’s mild financial success that the studio might make a play for an Original Screenplay nod. I think that’s a long shot, thankfully, but I fully expect it to clean up at the Independent Spirit Awards this year. I dig serious Ben Stiller so it’s too bad everything he does here is so cringeworthy. Gerwig is a rising star – actually already something of a star in the mublecore movement – but she really didn’t do anything for me here. This, naturally, would make her an Independent Spirit front-runner.
Actually, maybe it would be nice for Greenberg to rack up some Indie nominations so the rest of the gang will watch it. Sometimes I’m sadistic like that. I look forward to us hating on this film for years to come.
7 comments
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November 15, 2010 at 11:44 am
Jared
Is The Squid and the Whale the exception that proves the rule?
November 16, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Brian
I seem to recall that John hasn’t seen Squid and the Whale.
November 18, 2010 at 9:06 am
John
Nope I haven’t seen it and now I’m afraid to
December 18, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Kartik
Thank you! It’s nice to hear views I agree with. Sundance has this way of telling us what is good in the indie world – and being so wrong a lot of the time. I regret the ten bucks I spent to see the Squid and the Whale. It’s not a gripping story. It’s just weird characters and anecdotes strung together. Baffling that this movie should met with so much acclaim. My own thought is that I should have stayed home and watched a dvd instead (Kramer Vs. Kramer: a great divorce movie – or Little Miss Sunshine: a really well told indie story!)
To Baumbach, I say this: I don’t hate you. But if you keep making movies, I can promise that I will keep avoiding them.
Dupe me once, shame on you.
Dupe me twice, shame on me.
January 11, 2011 at 8:26 am
(I Prefer Hank) Greenberg « The Golden Grouches
[…] really been all that inspiring. Greenberg is no exception. I agree with a lot of what John has to say (other than I can’t completely write off Noah Baumbauch because I really did love The Squid […]
August 6, 2015 at 2:16 pm
Niz
I honestly hated every Baumbach movie i’ve seen so far. I agree about the empty conversations leading to nothing. Thanks for the post, is good to see im not the only one that feels this way
August 10, 2015 at 11:19 am
John
The best part about keeping our mostly-defunct site online is that sometimes a stranger will drop in and validate my opinions. Thank you!