Greenberg

Locations
Call Number: DVD Comedy Greenberg
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 1st Floor 1-week checkout	DVD Comedy Greenberg	1-week checkout	On Shelf

Originally produced as a motion picture in 2009.
Special features include: behind the scenes, "Greenberg loves Los Angeles," director featurette.
Ben Stiller, Chris Messina, Greta Gerwig, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mark Duplass, Rhys Ifans.
Roger Greenberg is single, fortyish and deliberately doing nothing. In search of a place to restart his life, he agrees to housesit for his brother in LA and tries to reconnect with his former bandmate and successful ex-girlfriend. But old friends aren't necessarily still best friends, and Greenberg soon finds himself forging a connection with his brother's personal assistant, Florence. Greenberg has come to realize that he may at last have found a reason to be happy.
DVD, NTSC, region1 ; anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) presentation ; Dolby digital 5.1 surround.

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Don't be fooled by the hype surrounding this movie :( submitted by shaeva1 on September 10, 2010, 12:03pm Usually I like starting a review with something positive, but this time around I must break from usual protocol. This has been the second Noah Baumbach film that I have reviewed (see my post for Margot at the Wedding), and he is getting another thumbs down from me. The cast is phenomenal, separately, but strewn together = not effective. My problem was not with Ben Stiller ( typically know for his comedic roles) trying to tackle a dramatic role (pulled it off very well in Permanant Midnight) seen in recent years by the likes of Bill Murray or Robin Williams, my main problem lies with my sheer dislike for every character. Just as in Margot at the Wedding I found myself half way through the film wishing horrible things to occur to each character so that at least something interesting would happen. This film could have been a homerun considering it revolves around an unemployed 40 something, who is deliberately doing nothing, and taking into account our current economic state of unemployment. If Noah Baumbach would have created characters that would just go 100% dysfunctional, rather than going 60% then pulling back, his recent movies would be better off and much more enjoyable. I guess all of his films can't be a magnificent opus like The Squid and the Whale. Till next time, happy movie watching.

not bad submitted by manz on December 13, 2010, 11:47am I saw that this movie was getting mixed reviews, so I didn't quite know what to expect, but I kind of liked it.

I thought the storyline was a little weird, but I liked watching these two fractured souls deal with their stuff, separately and together. I find Ben Stiller highly annoying, and still do.

coke submitted by lekendrick on July 27, 2011, 7:14pm it's an odd movie off of kilter & the drug use is the type of consequence free to level excess meanwhile veiled as depression or some mental illness, but like "prozac nation" the character central is one be loathed! Not excessive quite same point as fore mentioned, but watching the none redeeming actions one be generally avoided happened upon in reality is a high art of adulthood, and I'd like it not missed a restricted rating assigned!

Not a comedy submitted by emjane on July 14, 2012, 8:11pm Greenberg’s plot is entirely character driven. Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller), a 40ish guy with emotional problems who doesn’t know what he’s doing with his life, is house-sitting for his wealthy brother and reconnecting with old friends from California. He also develops a thing (I wouldn’t call it a relationship) with Florence (Greta Gerwig) his brother’s personal assistant. Before she meets Roger, Florence, in her mid-twenties, is struggling finding balance after the end of a serious relationship, and her interactions with Greenberg don’t help any. Greenberg shows both of their lives over the six-week period Roger is house-sitting, not limiting its focus to only the interactions between the two.

My biggest complaint with Greenberg was that it moved incredibly slowly (particularly the first two thirds of the movie). I wanted scenes to be shorter and a little more relevant, and I wanted something to happen. There were some incredibly funny scenes (particularly in the last half), but not nearly enough for it to live up to the quirky comedy the trailer portrayed.

I liked the characters, I liked the jokes, I thought the acting was well done, but I can’t say the same about the movie as a whole.