Greenberg (2010)
Greenberg (2010) — The big thing you need to overcome to enjoy this movie is that Ben Stiller plays a total asshole. Seriously. The guy is a major-league dick to everyone in his life. He doesn’t mean to be but he is. It’s a pretty decent compliment to Stiller’s performance that I didn’t hate the character. In a weird way I really empathized with him. His misanthropy sort of reminded me of my own less-than-friendly tendencies (though I still think I come off better). Also in this movie is Greta Gerwig, who it seems just about half the people I knew in high school were friends with but I never even heard of her until the trailers for this movie [that sentence can’t possibly be grammatically correct but I’m just going to roll with it]. She’s also quite good in a very indie-film way. Rhys Ifans is great as the only one of Stiller’s “friends” who can stand him. Dave Franco, Chris Messina, and director Noah Baumbach’s wife Jennifer Jason Leigh also pop up in supporting roles. Anyway I dug this movie but I’ve enjoyed the other two Baumbach movies I’ve seen (The Squid and the Whale & the non-Will Ferrel 1995 movie Kicking and Screaming). So I guess instead of your middle child you should see this movie for your inner cranky middle-aged dude.
