Greenberg

Ben Stiller has been languishing in rom-com's for as long as I can remember. Sure, there was the occasional stroke of genius. Dodgeball, for instance, or Tropic Thunder. With his lead in Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, Stiller not only ditches the inane romantic comedies, he shows us a side of himself that we don't often see. And, for a bonus? We got a movie with a LOT of Greta Gerwig in it. Always a pleasure.

Gerwig plays a nanny/assistant to a rich couple who are leaving for Vietnam for an undisclosed reason. In their absence, the husband's brother, Roger Greenberg (Stiller), comes to stay out at the house for a couple of weeks so that he can ease back into life, after being in a mental hospital for a period of time. Gerwig's Florence meet's Roger when she comes over to pick up her check, which starts up a strange, sometimes endearing, sometimes tumultuous, relationship. Greenberg is also trying to reconnect with his old friends Ivan and Eric (played by Rhys Ifans and Mark Duplass), who were all in a band together, and even tries to hook up with his divorcee ex-girlfriend, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh (who looks considerably more cleaned up than in her past couple of movies).

Greenberg, and I mean the guy, not the movie, is a mess. He, obviously, does not know how to live life in any sort of meaningful form or fashion, and, instead, seems to work primarily on impulse. Stiller shows some real acting chops in this film, as he's able to cross the line into so many different emotions, seemingly on a dime. He hits every note of his Baumbach inspired dialogue and shows us that he's not just the funny guy. Greta Gerwig is always a pleasure to watch, and I think this is her best role since Nights and Weekends. She is at her insecure best, giving herself to this guy who is, probably, twenty years older than her, putting up with his crap, CONSTANTLY, and generally making all of the mistakes that twenty something girls make. Rhys Ifans was interesting to see in this role, because it is the most quiet and subdued role I have ever seen him in. Sure, I haven't seen him in a ton of stuff, but, of what I have seen, I was definitely blown away by his ability to truly show distance, sadness, and regret. Noah Baumbach is a greater writer and director. Not withstanding Margot At The Wedding, I really feel like Baumbauch's oeuvre is solid, and this is a great addition to it.

Tropic Thunder

Ahh... The beauty of controversy... Especially when the people who are kicking it all up have either not seen the thing their complaining about, or completely missed the point. Tropic Thunder is Ben Stiller's first time back in the directing chair since Zoolander, a film that made fun of the idiocy of the modelling business, and male models, in particular. This time around, Stiller is taking on the idiocy of his own breed - actors and directors. With a well-rounded out cast of talent, including once, and now current, golden boy Robert Downey Jr., Steve Coogan, Danny McBride, Jack Black, and Tom Cruise (in a surprisingly hilarious role), Stiller is out to win your heart for this movie with a lot of R-rated laughs.

The film centers around the production of a war movie, also titled Tropic Thunder, which is being led by an ego-maniacal director, Damien Cockburn (played by Steve Coogan). Cockburn has wrangled up several of Hollywood's leading actor's, including action star Tugg Speedman (Stiller), comedian Jeff Portnoy (Black), and Kirk Lazarus (Downey Jr.), an Australian multi-award winner. After only a week of filming, the production is hopelessly off schedule and over budget, and the actors aren't cooperating with Cockburn's direction. Fearing his eminent dismissal by the head honcho's in charge, Cockburn decides to gather up his leads, along with explosives expert Cody (played perfectly by Danny McBride), and the author of the source novel, Four Leaf Tayback (played by a very grungy Nick Nolte), and head out into the jungle to shoot the film guerilla style, in hopes that this will inspire his actors to deliver the performances he's looking for. Needless to say, things go awry from the moment they touch down, and soon enough, the whole Tropic Thunder crew is living out the movie there supposed to be making.

This film was hilarious! That's it. That's all I can say. One of the funniest things I've seen all year. And, it's sort of like The Dark Knight of comedy's - you feel like you could watch it over and over, and it would never stop being funny. Everybody's performances were great, and Stiller did an amazing job for being co-writer, director, AND actor. I can't imagine what that process must have been like.

The controversy, though, centers around the inclusion of a movie that Tugg Speedman did, as a chance to get an award, called Simple Jack. That "film" was about a mentally challenged individual. Several mental disability advocate groups have taken to saying that the film makes fun of the mentally disabled. I got news for you - It doesn't. If they had SEEN the movie, they would know that. Simple Jack isn't about showing mentally disabled people as stupid or people to be made fun of. It's purpose is to show the idiocy of actors who try desperately to attach themselves to projects like that, because they think it will get them awards. Tugg Speedman is an action star. He doesn't get any real respect, so he goes out and makes a movie like Simple Jack thinking that everyone will love it, and be challenged by it, and they'll heap awards on him. Instead, people laugh at him, and scorn him (until he finds some people who DID like the film, but I won't ruin that for you). It's the same concept that he's using for Downey Jr.'s character Kirk Lazarus. Lazarus lobbies to play the part of the platoon's black leader. There's only one problem, though - he's white. So he goes through an operation to have his pigment darkened so he can play the role. AND THEY HIRE HIM! Why would anybody, in their right minds, hire a white, Australian guy to play the part of a black, southern platoon leader? But that's the point! It's to show the ridiculousness of some of the decisions that Hollywood makes sometimes. And if you watch the movie, and you don't get that fact... Honestly, I'd feel a little sorry for you...

Tropic Thunder is great. It's almost constant laugh's, a great satire of one of the largest entertainment industries in the world, and its done with great skill and loving care. Don't believe the negative hype about this film - go see it.