Film

Greenberg

Name: Greenberg
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Released: 2010
Cast: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mark Duplass

Drama

Noah Baumbach's portrait of a self-sabotaging man in his late thirties, adrift in Los Angeles and armed with grievances instead of direction. Ben Stiller plays Roger Greenberg with bruising specificity—funny, infuriating, trapped by his own contempt. It's a film about the paralysis of holding grudges, and the smallest possibility of connection breaking through. Deeply uncomfortable. Occasionally hilarious. For people who recognize themselves in their own worst impulses.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy prickly, awkward people who say the wrong thing and stay funny-sad, and you're happy with a story that refuses to tidy itself up.

Skip it if you want momentum and plot, since little happens here beyond wandering conversations and a lot of sulking, which can wear thin over 107 minutes.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a patient, mostly quiet ride of just under two hours, where the awkward silences do most of the work and the laughs arrive sideways.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Marriage Story2019

Noah Baumbach again—and this time with catastrophic love at the centre rather than catastrophic bitterness. Equally precise about how people wound each other, but with the weight of real history behind it. Devastating.

But It's about divorce. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are both heartbreaking, which means it's difficult to watch. Some people want escapism, not this.

The Squid and the Whale2005

Another Baumbach film, smaller and rawer—about a teenager navigating his parents' divorce in 1980s Brooklyn. The same neurotic precision, but applied to family dissolution. Jeff Daniels is magnificent and awful.

But It's grainy, unglamorous, and deeply uncomfortable. The humour is acidic. If you want warm family drama, you're in the wrong place.

Funny Ha Ha2003

Andrew Bujalski's mumblecore debut, a portrait of aimlessness and quarter-life dread in Minneapolis. Janky, low-budget, and devastatingly honest about the paralysis of not knowing what comes next. Greta Gerwig is wonderful.

But It looks like it was shot on a phone from 2003. The plot barely exists. If you need structure and production value, this will test your patience.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Greenberg

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

American Gigolo1980

Both films are about men whose self-image is their prison, and both suggest that the only way out is through humiliation and surrender. Both use Los Angeles as a character—cold, beautiful, fundamentally indifferent.

Paul Schrader's film about a man performing masculinity while emptying out from the inside. Richard Gere as a gorgeous void, sophisticated and utterly hollowed out. It has Greenberg's same DNA—a man defined by what he refuses to admit about himself.

But It's stylized and slow and sometimes feels like an essay about Los Angeles and sex work rather than a plot. The 1980 aesthetic is deliberate, but it's still 1980. Some people will find it glacial.

Punch-Drunk Love2002

Paul Thomas Anderson on loneliness and the violence underneath it. Adam Sandler as a man whose rage and vulnerability are inseparable. Strange, funny, occasionally savage. A masterpiece about emotional constipation.

But It's aggressively weird—bright colours, clashing soundscapes, tone shifts that feel deliberate and uneasy. Not everyone can sit with that kind of aesthetic discomfort.

Paterson2016

Jim Jarmusch's quiet poem about a bus-driving poet in New Jersey, observing small failures and small mercies. Adam Driver again, perfectly calibrated. It's about how you live with being ordinary and powerless. Unexpectedly moving.

But Almost nothing happens. The rhythm is glacial. If you need plot momentum or dramatic incident, you'll find it punishingly slow.

While We're Young2015

Baumbach once more—Noah Baumbach again, sorry, but the man keeps making films about men reckoning with their own obsolescence. Noah and Greta play a couple trying to stay vital against the current of aging. It's funny and sad and recognizable.

But The relationship between youth and aging culture is the actual subject, which means it can feel cynical. Also: a lot of men behaving badly, which some people find tiresome.

You Can Count on Me2000

Kenneth Lonergan's debut about a brother and sister who can't save each other, no matter how hard they try. Mark Ruffalo and Laura Linney are extraordinary. It's about the limits of love and the weight of family obligation. Quietly devastating.

But It moves slowly and its pain is cumulative. Nothing explodes—just slow, steady erosion of hope. That's beautiful, but it's exhausting.

High and Low1963

Kurosawa's film about the inextricable connections between wealth, morality, and blame. A man's son is kidnapped; the ransom forces him to reckon with what his privilege costs others. Structurally brilliant and morally uncompromising.

But It's from 1963 and shifts genre halfway through—the first half is tense, the second is detective procedural. Tonal whiplash. Also nearly three hours.

The Wrestler2008

Darren Aronofsky's portrait of decline and the desperate ways people cling to meaning. Mickey Rourke as a washed-up wrestler trying to be worth something. It's bleak and tender and sometimes almost unwatchable in its empathy.

But It's physically and emotionally brutal. The ending is dark. If you watch this expecting uplift, you'll feel cheated and angry.

Columbus2017

Both are films about people paralyzed by inherited damage, living in a kind of suspended animation. Both suggest that the only way forward is to be really looked at by someone who doesn't want anything from you.

Kogonada's debut, a film about looking at buildings and looking at people. Two strangers in Columbus, Indiana, connect over architecture and damage. Exquisitely composed, whisper-quiet, and about the possibility of being seen by a stranger. Achingly beautiful.

But Nothing dramatic occurs. It's a film about observation and silence and the weight of family history. If you need plot or conflict, this is not it. Some will find it too precious.

In the Mood for Love2000

Both films understand that loneliness and desire can be more powerful than action, and that sometimes the most intimate moments are the ones you can never quite have. Both are about the gap between feeling and doing.

Wong Kar-wai's film about two neighbours who discover their spouses are having an affair. Instead of confrontation, they rehearse conversations in hotel rooms—performing intimacy without touching. Ravishingly shot, achingly lonely, about desire as a kind of sickness.

But It's extremely slow and extremely stylized. The primary emotions are repression and yearning, which some people find unbearable rather than moving. It's also from Hong Kong, in Cantonese. Subtitles required.