Salon.com > Greenberg

“Arthur”: Russell Brand as Dudley Moore, from Mars

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 01:01:00 +0000

You pretty much know what you're getting with "Arthur," a remake of an early-'80s comedy hit that misfires on multiple levels but isn't all that terrible. (Put that on your poster, Warner Bros.!) This fable of a feckless, alcoholic zillionaire who finds true love has been tastefully updated for contemporary sensibilities by director Jason Winer and writer Peter Baynham. (So: No more drinking and driving!) It never departs from its zany-heartwarming rom-com recipe and it bears absolutely no relationship to real life. I know it's only April, but "Arthur" might be the year's first summer movie, in the sense that if you're stuck in the house on a rainy day with a large group that extends from tweens to grandparents, you could definitely do worse. (The film's humor is a teensy bit risqué, not to mention bewildering, for smaller children.)

“Greenberg”: Ben Stiller is cruel, crazy — and compelling

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:50:00 +0000

In Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg," Ben Stiller is the Roger Greenberg of the title, a fortyish lost soul who's just done a stint in a New York mental hospital and who has just decamped to his brother's tony digs in L.A., for a few weeks house- and dog-sitting. Greenberg is a gaunt ghost of a figure, with shadowy eye sockets and exhausted, unblinking eyes -- his pupils are constantly on red alert. He spends his days building a doghouse for his brother's family dog, a low-key German Shepherd named Mahler, and trying to reconnect with old friends that he's clearly alienated with years' worth of erratic behavior. He writes cantankerous letters to American Airlines, Starbucks and the New York Times, first etching them out in longhand (like a crazy person) and then typing them neatly before packing them off in their crisp envelopes (like a crazy person who knows how to appear sane). Socially awkward and so self-involved that other people's lives seem like an inconvenience to him, Roger Greenberg is everything most of us don't want to be.

Banned from the screening room!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:45:00 +0000

Over the last couple of days, the insular world of the New York entertainment media has gotten its collective panties in a bundle over the question of whether New York Press critic Armond White had or had not been banned from press screenings of "Greenberg," the new film from director Noah Baumbach ("The Squid and the Whale," "Margot at the Wedding") that opens next week in New York and Los Angeles. Anonymous e-mails and outraged tweets have flown back and forth, complete with exaggerated First Amendment claims and calls for a critical boycott of Scott Rudin and Focus Features, the producer and distributor of "Greenberg," respectively. In comments forums, fellow critics have lined up for or against White, a legendary contrarian known for his forceful and idiosyncratic opinions. (I know White only slightly, but have always found him a pleasant guy in person.)