Greenberg 2010

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: True to this chauvinistic genre, Gerwig is a vacuum who lives to serve the house, the man and the mechanics of Baumbach's script. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Cinematographer Harris Savides captures the relentless, rather terrifying sunniness of LA without ignoring the smog. Baumbach's script and direction has brought out the best in everyone on-screen. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: As unlikable as Roger is, Stiller finds a way to make you see past his bitterness and sympathize with his aimlessness. You don't like him, but you feel his pain. Read more

James Rocchi, MSN Movies: Greenberg will do a lot for Stiller's reputation and Gerwig's profile, but its awkward, messy humanity and uncomfortable honesty won't necessarily do a lot for ticket-buyers more used to lighter, warmer and breezier entertainments. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Greenberg would be a heckuva movie if we could just get Greenberg out of there. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Greenberg scintillates with intelligence, razor's-edge humor and austere empathy for its struggling lovers. Read more

Nathan Rabin, AV Club: Bittersweet and beautifully realized, harsh but humane, Greenberg is a self-consciously small film that nevertheless leaves an indelible mark. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Stiller is expert at playing self-indulgent types unaware of their boorishness, and Greenberg is no exception. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Greenberg won't be everyone's cup of hemlock. Yet we all know people like this -- the ones who only hear their own motors running -- and Baumbach locates and mines a rich vein of appalled comic sympathy. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Stiller plays a monster, and when Gerwig goes for him, declaring that she sees his tender side, the development seems like a fond indulgence on the part of writer-director Noah Baumbach. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: In many ways this is Baumbach's best film, filled with his bitter but often funny misanthropic perspective, but buoyed by the undeniable likability of Stiller and Gerwig. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Nothing good happens during the course of the movie -- and Baumbach seems to be saying, Take it or leave it. I, for one, take it. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: In Greenberg it's sometimes difficult to figure out whether it's Roger or Baumbach who has lost his way. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: Greenberg is a perceptive look at coming to terms with, if not entirely embracing, the life you weren't expecting and by no means wanted. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: This is tricky, ambiguous material, seemingly better fitted to a short literary novel than to a movie, and it could have gone wrong in a hundred ways, yet Baumbach handles it with great assurance. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Greenberg is a nasty neurotic. Florence is a passive victim. If you're looking for someone to identify with -- well, pray you don't find one here. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: To really pull off Greenberg would require a lead performance from a master actor. The actor it stars is...Ben Stiller. Read more

Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer: It's one of my favorite Stiller performances, perhaps precisely because it is such a surprisingly nuanced turn. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Stiller's portrayal is so acutely real, Baumbach's writing so cutting and specific, and the work of Gerwig so seemingly effortless that Greenberg makes you, if not happy to stick around, then at least agreeable to the idea. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I never knew who Ben Stiller was born to play, but now I do. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Baumbach tracks Roger without glib condescension. That's why Greenberg pulls you in. Even when you laugh, like in the climactic party scene, it hurts. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Greenberg is all about that halting, forward movement. Maybe there's no happy ending for Roger Greenberg, but there's no going back, either, and that counts as progress. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Baumbach may paint miniatures, but his films are anything but quaint. They're as unsettling as meeting a harmless but difficult stranger. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Greenberg's inconclusive last scene hints at the possibility that even the bitterest basket case stands a chance of finding someone who loves him. That's sort of my hope for this movie, too. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Even among the cavalcade of finks and egoists that populate Baumbach's body of work, Greenberg is a doozy. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Greenberg may not win any popularity contests, but for fans of risk-taking cinema, it's most likely to succeed. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: What saves it, however, is Gerwig. The love story ain't credible, but her performance is, perfectly capturing a young woman who doesn't lack confidence so much as a sense of self. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: The movie ends on strange note, almost as if even Baumbach couldn't stand to spend one more minute with the odious Greenberg. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: The movie has the curious vagueness of intent that makes so many "meaningful" works of fiction not all that meaningful. Read more

Joshua Land, Time Out: Greenberg only slightly misses the top flight by settling for too weak a foil. Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: A film of powerful, memorable moments -- some striking dialogue, some great performances, a handful of beautifully played, bracingly discomfiting love scenes -- in search of a structure and, perhaps, a soul. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: As a study of stasis and of people conscious of not living the lives they had imagined for themselves, the picture offers a bracing undertow of seriousness beneath the deceptively casual, dramatically offhand surface. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The style is observational, the drama is understated, and, when the time comes, it knocks you out with the subtlest of badda-booms. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: The movie has the easy, unforced feel of the temporary timeout in life that Roger himself has embarked on. The script is full of funny, observant lines. Read more