Monday, April 26, 2010

Greenberg (2009)

From NetFlix: At a crossroads in his life in New York, Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) takes some time to figure things out and travels to Los Angeles, where he house-sits for his brother and forges an unlikely bond with his brother's assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig). Acclaimed director Noah Baumbach's (The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding) finely observed relationship comedy also stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rhys Ifans.  2010  117 minutes


The Movie Slut's review says it all.  For her other reviews click "Movie Slut."
Here's what we know about Roger Greenberg.
+ He's just been released from a mental hospital.
+ He functions — sort of — on a cocktail of pills.
+ He lives in New York, but is house-sitting in Southern California.
+ His college rock band was about to sign a record deal when he backed out.
+ He doesn't know the name of his best friend's son.
+ At the moment, he's busy doing nothing except writing letters of complaint to Starbucks and American Airlines, a pet taxi and Mayor Bloomberg.
And in this eponymous movie, he's played by Ben Stiller, who's superb as a 40-year-old narcissistic, paranoid, anxiety-riven, socially inept Peter Pan.
Greenberg, the man and the movie, are both sad and funny. Movie-goers will laugh, not at him or with him — he's not laughing — but because we see something of ourselves in this lost soul, and because we know that at least some of his nuttiness is a sane reaction to an insane world.

DJE:  I'm not sure of Greenberg's exact DSM diagnoses, but they include OCD, anxiety, narcissism and others.  I agree with the Movie Slut"  worth seeing.

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