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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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Greenberg (Film)

by Mark Demetrius | July 19, 2010 12:16 | Edited July 19, 2010 12:17

While slightly patchy and too quirky, Ben Stiller is terrific in the lead role and the film is highly watchable, containing a handful of unforgettable moments.

The whole of Greenberg is rather less than the sum of its parts. They add up to a standard saga about a rather unstable middle aged man and a younger woman, but they include great lines and a strong central performance by Ben Stiller, who effectively plays Roger Greenberg, a forty-year-old carpenter and ex-muso who's just come out of a mental asylum.

 

Roger grew up in Los Angeles but moved to New York long ago, and now he's back in LA to mind his brother's house for a few weeks while he's abroad - and to pursue his stated ambition of "doing nothing." Roger catches up with old flame Beth (Jennifer Jason Leigh, who also produced the film, and contributed to the story), and old chum, Ivan (Rhys Ifans). But the meat of the matter is his nascent relationship with young singer, Florence (Greta Gerwig). This involves a lot of awkwardness, frayed tempers, a measure of lust, and ultimately possibly of love.

 

Stiller is great as the self-obsessed and sharp-witted Roger, with an unnerving capacity to project stares that are half blank and half frenzied. He gets to trot out aphorisms such as, "Hurt people people", and to reply to the old one about youth being wasted on the young with, "I'd go further: life is wasted on people."
     

Greenberg is patchy, but at worst, it's a guilty pleasure. It tries a bit hard to be quirky, but it gets away with it. There's a memorable party scene involving the twin pitfalls of drug-fuelled paranoia and the generation gap. And, for an ephemeral yarn with a familiar theme and a quorum of Seinfeld/Tarantino-style small talk, it's all very watchable. The film boasts a good ending too, which is hardly a given these days in Hollywood.