Greenberg (Friday, March 26, 2010) (22)

I really like so-called "Mumblecore" films. This mid-aughts mini-movement developed rather organically in the United States where film students started making gritty, microscopic-budget dramas about mid-20s post-college malaise. Most of these films are story-based, feature either non-actors or unpolished actors, have stories that are less traditionally structured and use new media and formal experimentation throughout.

Two of my favorites are Andrew Bujalski's Funny Ha Ha from 2005 and Joe Swanberg's LOL from 2006. Both deal with relationships between lovers and friends and how the current young generation has difficulty connecting with one another (suggested by the IM shorthand in the titles). I think it is the most successful post-modernist film movement in commercial release.

Greta Gerwig is a mumblecore alumna, having worked with Joe Swanberg on LOL and Hannah Takes the Stairs. She is disarming and totally honest. She is the girl next door because she's absolutely average-looking and still beautiful. She is the slightest bit out of shape - but this only adds to the idea that you could meet her at a bar or a friend's party and date her.

She is also almost the only thing good in Greenberg, a mainstream mumblecore film about misanthropy made by Noah Baumbach, an interloper and poseur.

I have a love-hate relationship with Baumbach. I thought his first film, Kicking and Screaming was very OK (though, I admit, I might have been too young when I first saw it to have a decent opinion about); I thought The Squid and the Whale was really great; I thought Margot at the Wedding was rather miserable and I now don't like this one. Oy vey.

The story revolves around Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) who is a horrible, hateful New York loser who is more-or-less unemployed, recently got out of some sort of mental hospital (which we never really are clear about, but is relevent enough to mention a few times), has burned basically all the bridges in his life and spends his days as some level of carpenter (in New York, at least) and by writing notes of complaint to companies who bother him.

He is house sitting the posh Hollywood home of his brother who is out of town on vacation with his family. His brother's young personal assistant, Florence (Gerwig), seems to take care of everything from shopping for groceries to looking after the family dog. Greenberg meets Florence awkwardly one morning and later in the day, when he exhausts the three phone numbers in his Rolodex, calls her for a date.

He doesn't drive or have access to a car (which is weird because it would seem in LA his brother would have a car available while he is out of town... this is totally contrived), so Florence picks him up. They end up back at her place after a few minutes and end up making out (with possibly the worst, most uncomfortable and bizarre on-screen cunnilingus I've ever seen in my life). For the rest of the film, Greenberg treats Florence badly, she falls deeper and deeper in love with him and he pisses off the only two old friends that don't totally hate him by this point (Jennifer Jason Leigh and Rhys Ifans).

I don't find misanthropy to be interesting. It's like someone having red hair being an interesting characteristic or something to make a movie about. Some people are terrible and have destructive personalities and that does not make them more engaging as characters. Yes, Greenberg is a smart guy who has a quick tongue and can make a lot of pop-culture references and leaps of logic - but he's basically a very dull person to watch.

He sits around, bitches, calls people to take care of him, treats people badly and doesn't really feel bad about any of this.(By the way, there is a suggestion here that Greenberg has had a breakdown that put him in the hospital, but we never get to know much about this, so his inability to commit to Florence and other friends might be because he's generally rotten in his character and might be because there's a emotional-psychological problem, but we never find out much about this).

The writing by Baumbach (based on a concept by him and his wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh) is terrible. The story is totally monotone with no development, no intrigue, no analysis or redemption and no pacing. Greenberg's dialogue is punchy, but I think that's easy to write and not all that interesting. I can bitch, insult people for hours and be very wise and there's nothing about my life that is particularly screen-worthy.

I guess this is where the mumblecore thing comes in. The themes in this film (not being able to commit, not having any direction, general dissatisfaction with one's life) are the mainstays of mumblecore. The scenes between Greenberg and Florence are pure mumblecore (people meet at a party- or a job - and hook up, having raw, ugly sex and circular conversations). One problem with this is that most of the dialogue from Greenberg is elevated, Hollywood Oscar-bait with long monologues, while the lines from Florence are pure mumblecore, with grunts and sighs and awkward timing and a patina of reality that Greenberg (that Stiller) does not have.

The other problem with this, of course, is that this is a dirty white hippie with dreadlocks. It is neigher fish nor fowl. It is not mumblecore as the story is too polished and has too much direction and is really *about* Greenberg's misanthropy, which is much too introspective in the dark surface world of mumblecore.

Stiller is totally fine here in this role, but I think it's a pretty easy character to play. He's basically a total asshole. There's not much nuance and he doesn't grow or change much at all from beginning to the end (thanks to the terrible writing). Gerwig is a real discovery and is perfect for the role - especially because she's effectively unknown to most audiences so we come in with no preconceived notions about her. She's modest and average, but clearly sexy in a dirty hipster way. She's unpolished and shy and exactly like countless women we all know as friends or friends of friends. She has the best qualities of of the mumblecore movement.

Technically the film is fine, thought Harris Savides' photography is beautiful and intimate and not overdone. I also give lots of credit to costume director Mark Bridges who put Gerwig in a cardigan that is absolutely perfect for the character and brings with it as much background as you need to know about her (she got it from her ex boyfriend or her father or a thrift store and wears it everywhere in the LA winter). Again, this costume design is straight out of mumblecore.

More than a white kid with dreadlocks, this is a white man in blackface. Mumblecore is wonderful because it's small and independent and fresh and the means of productions are made outside the polish of the Hollywood machine on borrowed equipment in a cast-member's crappy rental apartment. This is the big-budget, mainstream version of that. It has a big time actor and is trying to *say* something about the state of people in the modern world. It has no soul, though. It's a fake and a fraud and almost an offense to the bright, natural originals.

I can see Gerwig hitting it big from this. She's really great and I can see Hollywood people thinking they can make her then next ScarJo or Anne Hathaway. I wouldn't support this, though, as I think she's a much more dorky, unpolished actor than those other movie stars. I hope she goes back to weird small movies (though I'd love for her to get a paycheck and I can't imagine she makes much in the smaller fare). I also hope Hollywood does not catch on any further to mumblecore. Baumbach might have killed the genre here - I hope others don't come along to feed on the carcas.

Stars: 1.5 of 4 (those stars are for Gerwig and Savides only)