Mar. 24, 2010 - Issue #753: Zion I

Not according to plan

A botched interview strangely reflects the films of Noah Baumbach

Let's face it—I bombed an interview with widely acclaimed yet still somehow underrated director Noah Baumbach, so bad my laptop crapped out and failed to save the 10 sparse minutes of audio. But I was secretly relieved that all the stupid shit I said to a famous person was lost forever.
Firstly, we can cut to the chase. Greenberg, his latest feature starring Ben Stiller as a sociopathic former musician house-sitting in Los Angeles for his much more successful brother, is remarkable, not only for Baumbach fans but also for theatregoers who agree that the first third of 2010 releases has been so far a weak, bloodless term for cinema. All of the glowing buzz you are bound to hear about the film is likely true, Stiller is pathetic and soulful, and the harrowing theme of depression emerges as chic and funny. If you and your friends want something to talk about, check it out.

That being said, Baumbach had little to say when I tried to ask quite frankly to tell me about Greenberg. Most of the handful of subjects I've spoken to in the past have a rehearsed bit, a succint couple of sentences to provide some usable quotes and give readers a reason to see the film. Instead, he declined the opportunity to share, and said he would be happy to answer any more specific questions, but he really doesn't do that sort of thing.
Honestly, I had nothing else prepared.

My bad, I know. But, rather counteractively, Baumbach's stubborn response catches the appeal of his body of work—films about artists and thinkers so tired of being confronted by thoughtless and emotionally numb scenarios that they no longer feel compelled to reach out, because when they do, they are only reminded of the vicious circles in which people ask questions to hear the responses they were already thinking. Although I'm sure it cuts much deeper than that.

Stiller's character in the film, Roger Greenberg, is in the midst of losing his friends because he has reached said point too many times over. Like the writers Jeff Daniels and Nicole Kidman portrayed respectively in Baumbach's previous efforts, The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding, Roger has alienated almost all of the people, family and the like, who offer the distinct warmth of having known him the longest. Unlike them, he has no critical success to hold over people's heads to feel significantly intimidating. Recently discharged from a psych institution, all Roger has are friends that worry about him when he loses his temper.

A twisted romantic interest arrives in the form of his brother's assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig), a young, scatterbrained cute-but-not-sexy-blonde trying to make a go of it as a singer in California. She feels for Roger, largely because she sees the private mess of her own life and feels it easy to forgive the one he wears on his sleeve. Eventually, she, too, has a hard time putting up with him.

Realizing Baumbach's distinct approach to relaying his work to the press from an IFC video clip—google it, I had to—I felt better about how he challenged my few questions (or just thought they were dim). Be sure to know I'm not calling him an asshole, and that I've always seen a careful benevolence in how each of his films portrays seemingly despicable people. It works so well in Greenberg that it approaches a head-on kind of post-modern melodrama, and I feel awful for saying that. V

Greenberg
written and directed by Noah Baumbach
starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig,
Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh

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