Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner at Luna Park Sydney Fan Event on 31st May 2010.Kristen Stewart answering a fan question
7PM Project Extended Interview - Kristen Stewart & Taylor Lautner
Channel 10: Twilight in Sydney
Kristen Stewart at Luna Park Sydney Fan Event
Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner at Luna Park Sydney Fan Event on 31st May 2010.Kristen Stewart answering a fan question
7PM Project Extended Interview - Kristen Stewart & Taylor Lautner
Channel 10: Twilight in Sydney
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Trailer #2
Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her heart.
Based on the comic book series 'Scott Pilgrim' by Bryan Lee O'Malley, 'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World' is directed by Edgar Wright, with Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman.Release date: 13 August 2010
Music Track: The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
Jake Gyllenhaal to Gemma Arterton: 'You little commoner'
Jake Gyllenhaal in "Elle" magazine.
Gemma Arterton in I-D magazine photoshoot (2010)
Scans of Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton in PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME - VERONICA (NETHERLANDS) magazine , MAY 2010Jake Gyllenhaal called Gemma Arterton a "commoner."
Gemma Arterton as Tamara Drewe in "Tamara Drewe" (2010)London-born Gemma said: "We took the (expletive) out of each other. I used to say, 'Stop wearing sunglasses indoors,' and he'd say, 'You little commoner' I like that. I don't like it when it's serious.
"Often you go on film sets and you just meet the person that day in make-up, then you have to kiss them and it's weird."
Although they got on well, Gemma admits she and Jake had drastically different attitudes to preparing for their roles in the Disney action adventure.
She explained: "He has a lot of time with his shirt off so he wanted to look great. Jake took it really seriously, training in the morning and the evening. I prefer to go home, veg out, watch TV and try and forget about the day."Source: www.azcentral.com
More 'Prince of Persia' Interviews
Jake Gyllenhaal in Glamour magazine.
Jake Gyllenhaal - USA Today Portraits.
Scan of Gemma Arterton and Jake Gyllenhaal in "New" magazine.Jake Gyllenhaal reveals how he got in fighting shape for "Prince of Persia." Plus, did he do his own stunts?
Prince Of Persia (2010) - 1 min Clip: Fire From Above
Jake Gyllenhaal trained hard to get a rock solid body and bulging biceps to star in the action-packed adventure, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Gyllenhaal was up for the challenge of taking on his first larger than life character, based on one of his favorite childhood video games.
Tribute's Bonnie Laufer spoke with Gyllenhaal (who was in a very good and playful mood) exclusively about bringing out his inner child, his vigorous training schedule, what freaked him out on the set and who he would choose to be his partner if he were to go on "The Amazing Race."
Découvrez l'interview de Jake Gyllenhaal
Q.I want to ask you about the Parkour (free-running) stunts. Are you quite good at that now?
A.No, I have to say. I saw this thing on MTV called "The Ultimate Parkour Challenge" ... where they brought in some of the best Parkour athletes in the world. And I watched them do all these crazy things, which was actually semi-disturbing to see because they got injured quite a lot and I just thought 'I've got no idea what I'm doing, these guys are extraordinary.' The fundamentals I do know and I can do things, but ultimately I cannot say I'm a card carrying Parkour athlete. I just try to mimic. I did jumps, I did my own jumps and different things but the dangerous stuff was done by the professionals." Source: www.observer-reporter.com
Sterling in Cords ! Its all too much !
Sterling you could be Jimmy !
How fine does Sterling look here in his corduroy pants from that comedy classic ' 17 Again '. Actually I particularly enjoyed the performance by Zack's hair in that movie and the part where Sterling said ' I'm all sweaty ' after wining the basket ball game .
What with Christopher Nolan's 'Superman' movie moving ahead and looking at the picture above , a thought just struck me ,wouldn't Sterling make a great Jimmy Olsen ?
Rock Cherub ! The Total Package !
The Rock Cherub !
The Total Package !
Yes the return of The Rock Cherub continues to gather pace , on location in New York to shoot a new video . Rock Cherub George recently described as 'a charismatic rock'n'roller who likes nothing more than to whip fans into a frenzy at gigs by whipping his shirt off and throwing it into the mosh pit '.
George who had to be sewn into his trousers for the video shoot , revealed that he had wanted Harry Potters Rupert Grint to star in the the video . The scene in which Rupert who was to play The Rock Cherubs personnel hairdresser , accidentally catches his Harry Potter star Emma enjoying a chaste dip in a hot tub with front man George .
The scene was rumoured to have been dropped after Rupert thought the scene would have played better if he was the one in the hot tub and Emma walked in on him and George .
Creative tensions - Rupert wanted to Hot Tub
You Can Ring My Bell !
Ding Dong !
Jamie of course is one of the hot five actors rumoured for Spidey , but looking at the above 'beefcake' Jamie taken from ' The Eagle of the Ninth' , I'd say that lycra Spidey suit could be stretched to breaking point and then some .
In The Memory of Dennis Hopper 1936-2010 RIP
Dennis Hopper on the set of "Rebel without a cause" (1955) with Natalie Wood and James Dean.
R.I.P., Mr. Hopper, you'll be missed :)In The Memory of Dennis Hopper, you'll still live in our hearts!
Love, Other Drugs, Health Insurance
Jake Gyllenhaal, Sophia Bush and Austin Nichols working outon 29th May 2010 in Los Angeles.
Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal will star as onscreen couple in "Love and Other Drugs", an adaptation of pharmaceutical sales rep Jamie Reidy's insider-y book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman. Reidy worked at Pfizer during the '90s.
Gyllenhaal will play the Pfizer-pusher who meets Anna Hathaway's character during one of his sales calls. She suffers from Parkinson's disease, and the story plot is focused on Reidy's progression emphatizing with her medical problems and trying to do the right thing, despite of the pressures by the industry which he belongs, that want to pay him to forget the woman he's falling in love with.
Greta Gerwig in the hospital scene in "Greenberg" (2010)"I've got to get insurance. The anaesthesia was so expensive, I'm such a baby about pain. I stayed over night! I'm glad your brother is coming back next week, I need to work more hours". -Florence after having come back from the hospital.
"I know you know I was in a hospital. I'm not hiding it. But it's not what defines me, you know". -Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller in "Greenberg")According with some early screenings, Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway lead a great cast in 'Love and Other Drugs', the story of an ambitious a promiscuous pharmaceutical salesman (Gyllenhaal) getting his start in the Ohio market with his sights set on the big business in Chicago.
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His life is turned sideways when he meets the beautiful Maggie (Anne Hathaway), an artist with stage-one Parkinson's and a growing skepticism for love. Jamie Reidy's hilarious sales partner is played by Oliver Platt, and a former Marine (Gabriel Macht) as the #1 competition.
The writing is filled with witty banters echoing Howard Hawks's 'His Girl Friday' and more recent titles as 'Up in the Air' and '500s days of Summer' The story is also on a candent topic, especially in the days of the fight for healthcare reform. Director Edward Zwick (Glory, Blood Diamond) puts forth one of the best films of his career alongside a list of solid past work, creating some solid comedy and funny moments. The film is full of some raunchy and funny scenes involving Jake and Anne. Hank Azaria was hilarious as a womanizing doctor. Ed Zwick, director of "Blood Diamond" (2006), "Defiance" (2008), etc., manages to pull off a zany atmosphere 
specially thanks to Anne Hathaway playing off Jake's character. It has the perfect mix of gross out comedy, serious dramatics, and emotionally connecting love story. The film does a great job with teaching the audience both about Parkinson's and (legitimate) Pharmaceuticals sales. Anne's character is a rebel girl and she looks sexy in company of Jake (his Jamie is a smooth talking and a bit of a player).
After Prince of Persia's release we'll be able to watch him expanding his range in this role.Jamie Reidy graduated from Notre Dame, with a degree in English. He was hired by Pfizer becoming one of the most successful representatives as well as "Vitamin V"/"The Viagra Guy". Reidy left Pfizer after five years when he didn't get the promotion he wanted, and his book ends there. What helped to sell pharmaceutical products, according to Reidy's book "Hard Sell" was sex. A couple of memorable lines in the book are "I witnessed men undergo complete personality makeovers in the presence of female salespeople", and "The women had the most basic human response on their side; regardless how behind schedule or how crazy the day, a male doctor would snap to attention at a mere whiff of perfume or a glance at a pretty girl, his instinctive desire to reproduce having kicked into gear."
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Anne Hathaway in INSTYLE US photoshoot (2010)The movie never let the characters get too serious and they made constant jokes about the drama part. The Hollywood Reporter says Anne & Jake's romance on-screen will be relevant to the "political and social context of the time" the story is presented.
Emma Stone as Olive Penderghast in "Easy A" (2010)
“Gilda Radner was my original hero”, says Stone. “I fell in love with sketch comedy and improv when I was 11. I love everything that has to do with SNL: The history of it, the fact that it’s in New York City, and that it’s iconic and symbolizes where my dream began.”
In January 1986 Radner suffered from what she thought was chronic fatigue syndrome which proved to be ovarian cancer.There is currently no cure for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Instead, the symptoms are treated. Many people with CFS experience depression and other psychological problems that may improve with treatment. Some of the proposed treatments include: Antiviral drugs, medications to reduce pain, discomfort, anxiety and fever.
As much as the government wants to control health care it's still an industry difficult to sail, so it's good analyzing the different categories of insurance, checking your financial constraints and adapting to group health insurance rates.
Sometimes monthly premiums shot up to high fees so it's necessary then to do some research online and find health benefits that allow us to get the same professional services without excessives prices of insurance, and some employers also reimburse for alternative health benefits.
In case of trying to appeal the rate increase with an insurer it's another solution to consider changing your employer's plan and try seeking a better group health quote, or a new deal on the markets searching for an individual group health.
MTV Movie Awards 2010 - Robert Pattinson and Les Grossman
ROBERT PATTINSON GETS SOME CAREER ADVICE FROM HOLLYWOOD MEGA MOGUL LES GROSSMAN ABOUT HIS "2010 MTV MOVIE AWARDS" APPEARANCE!
Tom Cruise played Les Grossman in "Tropic Thunder" (2008), a foul-mouthed and hot-headed studio executive producing a blockbuster: Tropic Thunder..jpg)
Ben Stiller as action hero Tugg Speedman in "Tropic Thunder".-Studio Executive Rob Slolom: Wow. 8 Oscars, 400 million dollars at the box office, and you saved Tugg Speedman's career.
-Les Grossman: I couldn't have done it without you.
-Studio Executive Rob Slolom: Really?
-Les Grossman: No, dickhead. Of course I could. A nutless monkey could do your job. Now, go get drunk and take credit at all the parties.
Greenberg: a subterfuge attack on reality
"By understanding the way your mind works, you can make yourself memorable to others." — Jonathan Hancock
Through the character he plays in Noah Baumbach's Greenberg (2010), Ben Stiller revisits the chronic anxiety and vexed physique that most of his roles include, even the most apparently benevolent ones. 
With a dialogue-driven script based on a story written by Baumbach and his wife, actress/producer Jennifer Jason-Leigh, the film is enhanced by the semi-lucent cinematography of Harris Savides (Zodiac, Margot at the Wedding, Milk) whose tonality echoes '70s auteur cinema. Stiller plays Roger Greenberg, an addled former mental patient who travels to L.A. from New York to house sit for his wealthy brother Phillip (Chris Messina) in Hollywood Hills.
"Close examination of a man's behaviour reveals a powerfully masochistic, self-hating, and often pathetically self-destructive style", wrote Herb Goldberg in The New Male (1979).
Greenberg becomes an iconic oeuvre of style for both Baumbach as filmmaker and Stiller as performer. The story moves along by way of abrupt conversations and a very realistically indie atmosphere, filled with original music by James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem, Galaxie 500, Sonics, among others.
In fact, one of the main motifs for Roger Greenberg of relating to other people is talking about forgotten folk singers and bands, encouraging his brother's family's assistant Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig) "to see past the kitsch" when he plays "It Never Rains in Southern California" or when he argues with a group of college students at a party about the importance of throwing Duran Duran ("The Chauffeur") into a druggy mix. He finds ex-bandmate Eric's (Mark Duplass) CD collection offensive ("at a certain point, you're just showing off", he says, criticizing Eric's musical snobbism.)
Attending a party in Laurel Canyon, Roger notices that his former partners and friends tend to avoid his awkward approach. He confesses to his old flame Beth that he is "really trying to do nothing" while sweating profusely. She is a mother of two (dressed at the party as Flash and a devil) and she has moved on after divorcing a less Jewish version of Greenberg, although Roger protests he's only half-Jewish.
Greenberg says that Leonard Maltin would give him two and a half stars in his movie guide. And she's just struggling with her new life and her voice sounds exhausted.
Roger is an emotional abuser who doesn't identify as the abuser (he internalizes his panic and he sees himself more as the abused by a mimetic "preening" society) of the few people who can stand his sour company, staying in a permanent waylaid state, picking at their failures in life without compassion at the moment. Then he usually feels guilty about his mistreatment but the audience starts to see it could be too late for him to realize and stop his aggressions before he ends up completely alone in an inevitable downfall.
Thinking about it, the humor (which is the main source of Stiller's mainstream fame) is typically aggressive and conveniently misanthropic too. On his 41st birthday Roger blurts out "Life is wasted on people," and minutes later he impulsively invites Florence to a restaurant. When she shows up, Roger immediately leaves the table to telephone his old girlfriend Beth (Jennifer Jason-Leigh) to ask her for a date.
Florence, an aspiring singer who performs for sparse audiences in small clubs, is happy to meet Roger's bandmate Ivan and listen to tales of their defunct group Magic Marker. It was Roger's decision to not sign a promising record contract which would probably have catapulted the band to a moderate commercial stardom, but Roger's stubbornness and mistrust stalled the deal. And that controversial decision has haunted him for excruciatingly long years.
"Candy says I hate the big decisions
That cause endless revisions in my mind". — Lou Reed, "Candy Says"
Here Stiller (whose physical appearance gives us a whiff of rock star Lou Reed) looks very emaciated and disillusioned, a self-proclaimed vigilante of good customer service (penning petty letters to American Airlines, Starbucks, and the New York Times), fighting his imaginary cause against a corporate identity whom he identifies as a viral threat. Between raging protest letters he finds time to take care of Mahler, a German shepherd in need of medication for an autoimmune disorder.
Roger is addicted to using cherry-flavored ChapStick and he only has one real friend, Ivan (Rhys Ifans), who feels trapped in a new occupation as computer technician and is estranged from the Portuguese wife with whom he has a son. Roger acts nonchalantly toward Ivan's domestic vicissitudes because maybe he thinks he's keeping from falling down into the same mediocrity hole as his buddy.
His interactions with Ivan are frustrating, their conversations resultingly loopy. Ivan will complain they never talk about good things or help each other.
-Roger: I feel like I have those glasses from that John Carpenter movie and I can see who these people really are.
-Ivan: That wasn't bad, that movie.
-Roger: I thought it was terrible. [in the script]
-I think I saw Mannequin.
-And, uh, Gung Ho?
-I remember that being funny.
-Gung Ho's good.
-Yeah.
-It'd be interesting to watch it now.
-In the day? [in the film]
Ivan is an ex-stoner, cutting down on his old vices, and prefers iced tea over Scotch these days. He's needy and resentful about the past, but he's ready to "embrace the life you never planned on."
Roger puts on his best clothes and shows up ludicrously mincing on his date with Beth, where he is the only who seems to remember the important moments of their romance. But she's not impressed by his rambling speech where he randomly talks about mattresses, shrinks, his new career (he chose carpentry), and he asks her for another date, which she declines, visibly alarmed.
Roger Greenberg makes a list for Florence to shop with two essential items: whiskey and ice cream sandwiches.
In his essay "The Great Rememberer", Allen Ginsberg refers to the scene in "Visions of Cody" and implies a connection between Kerouac's retreat into alcohol and his inability to accept love in general. Martin Duberman's play "Visions of Kerouac" makes a similar point describing Kerouac as trapped in "lumberjack tears... a buried and bereft American man."
Impervious to some of Florence's affectionate advances, Greenberg gives her a mix CD because his heart resists acknowledging romantic feelings, hurting her candorous act. Their relationship is manifestly painful, but Baumbach represents it in a dark, quirky light, putting a humorous spin on it.
Stiller's jocular genius lies in the low-key performance which he favors over dramatic pathos, accentuating his character's shadows and moral warts. When he gets high (with Zoloft and coke, although Roger says he hates the coke politically) at his step-niece Sara's (Brie Larson) party in the company of her Australian friend Muriel (Juno Temple) he takes on a modern bunch of detached hipster kids, making clear he feels shut off from the Internet sex trends, the iPod generation and their "blithe air." Roger accuses all of them of insensitivity and horrifying confidence ("I hope I die before I meet one of you in a job interview").
Stiller balances empathy and necessary coldness in his performance, which is more than meets the eye, as is proven in an intimidating scene when a dead animal surfaces floating on the swimming pool at his brother's house, similar to an opossum (these small omnivores can mimic the appearance of a sick or dead animal; many injured opossums have been killed mistaken for dead). Roger's psychological response is involuntary when the eye of the rat/opossum stares back at him. That's another fitting metaphor from Baumbach in an already disturbing story.
"I feel like a possum in every way
Like a possum
My mind's amiss, I've lost the kiss
My smile is leaden, my gait is rubber
And I say as one possum to another
Like a possum". — Lou Reed, "Like a Possum"
Is Roger just a guy with good intentions (as Stiller thought of his scripted character) beneath a cynical exterior, a 21st century's new type of anti-hero perhaps? “I think it’s a really noble struggle”, he said to the New York Times, “imperfect people trying to get through every day of their lives.”
"I get so angry about the world, you know... If I knew who to write a letter to about the stupidity in the world, I'd do it!" — Roger Greenberg bares his soul via his phone message to Florence.
Greta Gerwig's performance shines uninterruptedly amidst the obscurity that emanates from Stiller's. She knows hurt people hurt people, she has made two stick puppets (a witch and a devil), she gets hiccups when she drinks carbonated beverages; her first encounter with Roger sharing a Corona belongs on the list of top awkward make-outs. This will be the big breakout role for Gerwig, who had previously been an indie mumblecore queen in New York, starring in films like "Hannah Takes the Stairs" (2007) and "Nights and Weekends" (2008) directed by Joe Swanberg.
Florence: Do you think you could love me?
Roger: I don't know, Florence.
Florence: I like seeing you.
Roger: No, you don't... you don't like it.
In "Flirting with Disaster" (1996) Stiller played Mel Coplin, a neurotic entomologist who, despite of being married to Nancy (Patricia Arquette), is attracted to an adoption worker, Tina Kalb (Tea Leoni). When things heat up he tries to offer his wife Nancy an apology at the airport:
Mel: Listen, I feel like I owe you an apology about last night. Because, you know, there's two sides to everything.
Nancy: That doesn't sound like an apology.
In "Greenberg" we hear his clumsy attempt to reconcile with Florence after having verbally abused her the night before:
Roger: I'm apologizing for my side of it.
Florence: That's not an apology.
Ben Stiller has considered himself pretty angsty and a recovering obsessive. His anxious shtick and blue goo-goo eyes have won him a position of honor in mainstream comedy. His figure is a fascinating crossover of show business-man and vocational satirist.
Stiller isn't a neophyte in the drama field — he played Chas Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson's (collaborator with Baumbach in "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox") "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2007).
And before in 1998 he played Jerry, obsessed with sex talk in Neil LaBute's "Your Friends & Neighbors" and in David Veloz's "Permanent Midnight" he plays real-life figure Jerry Stahl..jpg)
Stiller's filmography is so prolific and interconnected we could trace an impartible line of character common in most of his performances.
Although very different from Stiller's usual shy Everyman, Stahl represents a contradiction too: he has "miscalculated" moving to L.A., he's alternatively cocky and self-deprecating, he's a screenwriter for ALF and Moonlighting but he needs to stick a needle in his veins to transform into "a real stud." His self-destructive compulsion is paradoxically relieved with cynical humor:
"I was sentimental after cleaning mom's blood out of the carpet..."
"People always ask, 'What's the worst thing heroin drove you to do?'
I always answer, 'Showing up on Maury'.
Ben Stiller understands humor mustn't configurate always on a simple accessible fun level. "Drama doesn't scare me", he's said. "I think comedy is much scarier."
Humor is sometimes subversive, aggressive, and wrong, as are addictions, manic disorders, derangement, and meltdowns. Therefore there could be an unsafe, even suicidal component in unadultered humor. But Stiller provides a protective wall when his characters act scary; he's one of the few comedians who dare to install figuratively the wall that separates naïvety from satire, fear from reality.
Article first published as Movie Review: Greenberg on Blogcritics.
Through the character he plays in Noah Baumbach's Greenberg (2010), Ben Stiller revisits the chronic anxiety and vexed physique that most of his roles include, even the most apparently benevolent ones. 
With a dialogue-driven script based on a story written by Baumbach and his wife, actress/producer Jennifer Jason-Leigh, the film is enhanced by the semi-lucent cinematography of Harris Savides (Zodiac, Margot at the Wedding, Milk) whose tonality echoes '70s auteur cinema. Stiller plays Roger Greenberg, an addled former mental patient who travels to L.A. from New York to house sit for his wealthy brother Phillip (Chris Messina) in Hollywood Hills.
"Close examination of a man's behaviour reveals a powerfully masochistic, self-hating, and often pathetically self-destructive style", wrote Herb Goldberg in The New Male (1979).
Greenberg becomes an iconic oeuvre of style for both Baumbach as filmmaker and Stiller as performer. The story moves along by way of abrupt conversations and a very realistically indie atmosphere, filled with original music by James Murphy and LCD Soundsystem, Galaxie 500, Sonics, among others.
In fact, one of the main motifs for Roger Greenberg of relating to other people is talking about forgotten folk singers and bands, encouraging his brother's family's assistant Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig) "to see past the kitsch" when he plays "It Never Rains in Southern California" or when he argues with a group of college students at a party about the importance of throwing Duran Duran ("The Chauffeur") into a druggy mix. He finds ex-bandmate Eric's (Mark Duplass) CD collection offensive ("at a certain point, you're just showing off", he says, criticizing Eric's musical snobbism.)
Attending a party in Laurel Canyon, Roger notices that his former partners and friends tend to avoid his awkward approach. He confesses to his old flame Beth that he is "really trying to do nothing" while sweating profusely. She is a mother of two (dressed at the party as Flash and a devil) and she has moved on after divorcing a less Jewish version of Greenberg, although Roger protests he's only half-Jewish.
Greenberg says that Leonard Maltin would give him two and a half stars in his movie guide. And she's just struggling with her new life and her voice sounds exhausted.
Roger is an emotional abuser who doesn't identify as the abuser (he internalizes his panic and he sees himself more as the abused by a mimetic "preening" society) of the few people who can stand his sour company, staying in a permanent waylaid state, picking at their failures in life without compassion at the moment. Then he usually feels guilty about his mistreatment but the audience starts to see it could be too late for him to realize and stop his aggressions before he ends up completely alone in an inevitable downfall.
Thinking about it, the humor (which is the main source of Stiller's mainstream fame) is typically aggressive and conveniently misanthropic too. On his 41st birthday Roger blurts out "Life is wasted on people," and minutes later he impulsively invites Florence to a restaurant. When she shows up, Roger immediately leaves the table to telephone his old girlfriend Beth (Jennifer Jason-Leigh) to ask her for a date.
Florence, an aspiring singer who performs for sparse audiences in small clubs, is happy to meet Roger's bandmate Ivan and listen to tales of their defunct group Magic Marker. It was Roger's decision to not sign a promising record contract which would probably have catapulted the band to a moderate commercial stardom, but Roger's stubbornness and mistrust stalled the deal. And that controversial decision has haunted him for excruciatingly long years."Candy says I hate the big decisions
That cause endless revisions in my mind". — Lou Reed, "Candy Says"
Here Stiller (whose physical appearance gives us a whiff of rock star Lou Reed) looks very emaciated and disillusioned, a self-proclaimed vigilante of good customer service (penning petty letters to American Airlines, Starbucks, and the New York Times), fighting his imaginary cause against a corporate identity whom he identifies as a viral threat. Between raging protest letters he finds time to take care of Mahler, a German shepherd in need of medication for an autoimmune disorder.
Roger is addicted to using cherry-flavored ChapStick and he only has one real friend, Ivan (Rhys Ifans), who feels trapped in a new occupation as computer technician and is estranged from the Portuguese wife with whom he has a son. Roger acts nonchalantly toward Ivan's domestic vicissitudes because maybe he thinks he's keeping from falling down into the same mediocrity hole as his buddy.
His interactions with Ivan are frustrating, their conversations resultingly loopy. Ivan will complain they never talk about good things or help each other.-Roger: I feel like I have those glasses from that John Carpenter movie and I can see who these people really are.
-Ivan: That wasn't bad, that movie.
-Roger: I thought it was terrible. [in the script]
-I think I saw Mannequin.
-And, uh, Gung Ho?
-I remember that being funny.
-Gung Ho's good.
-Yeah.
-It'd be interesting to watch it now.
-In the day? [in the film]
Ivan is an ex-stoner, cutting down on his old vices, and prefers iced tea over Scotch these days. He's needy and resentful about the past, but he's ready to "embrace the life you never planned on."
Roger puts on his best clothes and shows up ludicrously mincing on his date with Beth, where he is the only who seems to remember the important moments of their romance. But she's not impressed by his rambling speech where he randomly talks about mattresses, shrinks, his new career (he chose carpentry), and he asks her for another date, which she declines, visibly alarmed.
Roger Greenberg makes a list for Florence to shop with two essential items: whiskey and ice cream sandwiches.In his essay "The Great Rememberer", Allen Ginsberg refers to the scene in "Visions of Cody" and implies a connection between Kerouac's retreat into alcohol and his inability to accept love in general. Martin Duberman's play "Visions of Kerouac" makes a similar point describing Kerouac as trapped in "lumberjack tears... a buried and bereft American man."
Impervious to some of Florence's affectionate advances, Greenberg gives her a mix CD because his heart resists acknowledging romantic feelings, hurting her candorous act. Their relationship is manifestly painful, but Baumbach represents it in a dark, quirky light, putting a humorous spin on it.
Stiller's jocular genius lies in the low-key performance which he favors over dramatic pathos, accentuating his character's shadows and moral warts. When he gets high (with Zoloft and coke, although Roger says he hates the coke politically) at his step-niece Sara's (Brie Larson) party in the company of her Australian friend Muriel (Juno Temple) he takes on a modern bunch of detached hipster kids, making clear he feels shut off from the Internet sex trends, the iPod generation and their "blithe air." Roger accuses all of them of insensitivity and horrifying confidence ("I hope I die before I meet one of you in a job interview").
Stiller balances empathy and necessary coldness in his performance, which is more than meets the eye, as is proven in an intimidating scene when a dead animal surfaces floating on the swimming pool at his brother's house, similar to an opossum (these small omnivores can mimic the appearance of a sick or dead animal; many injured opossums have been killed mistaken for dead). Roger's psychological response is involuntary when the eye of the rat/opossum stares back at him. That's another fitting metaphor from Baumbach in an already disturbing story.
"I feel like a possum in every way
Like a possum
My mind's amiss, I've lost the kiss
My smile is leaden, my gait is rubber
And I say as one possum to another
Like a possum". — Lou Reed, "Like a Possum"
Is Roger just a guy with good intentions (as Stiller thought of his scripted character) beneath a cynical exterior, a 21st century's new type of anti-hero perhaps? “I think it’s a really noble struggle”, he said to the New York Times, “imperfect people trying to get through every day of their lives.”
"I get so angry about the world, you know... If I knew who to write a letter to about the stupidity in the world, I'd do it!" — Roger Greenberg bares his soul via his phone message to Florence.
Greta Gerwig's performance shines uninterruptedly amidst the obscurity that emanates from Stiller's. She knows hurt people hurt people, she has made two stick puppets (a witch and a devil), she gets hiccups when she drinks carbonated beverages; her first encounter with Roger sharing a Corona belongs on the list of top awkward make-outs. This will be the big breakout role for Gerwig, who had previously been an indie mumblecore queen in New York, starring in films like "Hannah Takes the Stairs" (2007) and "Nights and Weekends" (2008) directed by Joe Swanberg.
Florence: Do you think you could love me?Roger: I don't know, Florence.
Florence: I like seeing you.
Roger: No, you don't... you don't like it.
In "Flirting with Disaster" (1996) Stiller played Mel Coplin, a neurotic entomologist who, despite of being married to Nancy (Patricia Arquette), is attracted to an adoption worker, Tina Kalb (Tea Leoni). When things heat up he tries to offer his wife Nancy an apology at the airport:Mel: Listen, I feel like I owe you an apology about last night. Because, you know, there's two sides to everything.
Nancy: That doesn't sound like an apology.
In "Greenberg" we hear his clumsy attempt to reconcile with Florence after having verbally abused her the night before:
Roger: I'm apologizing for my side of it.
Florence: That's not an apology.
Ben Stiller has considered himself pretty angsty and a recovering obsessive. His anxious shtick and blue goo-goo eyes have won him a position of honor in mainstream comedy. His figure is a fascinating crossover of show business-man and vocational satirist.
Stiller isn't a neophyte in the drama field — he played Chas Tenenbaum in Wes Anderson's (collaborator with Baumbach in "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" and "Fantastic Mr. Fox") "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2007).And before in 1998 he played Jerry, obsessed with sex talk in Neil LaBute's "Your Friends & Neighbors" and in David Veloz's "Permanent Midnight" he plays real-life figure Jerry Stahl.
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Stiller's filmography is so prolific and interconnected we could trace an impartible line of character common in most of his performances.
Although very different from Stiller's usual shy Everyman, Stahl represents a contradiction too: he has "miscalculated" moving to L.A., he's alternatively cocky and self-deprecating, he's a screenwriter for ALF and Moonlighting but he needs to stick a needle in his veins to transform into "a real stud." His self-destructive compulsion is paradoxically relieved with cynical humor:"I was sentimental after cleaning mom's blood out of the carpet..."
"People always ask, 'What's the worst thing heroin drove you to do?'
I always answer, 'Showing up on Maury'.
Ben Stiller understands humor mustn't configurate always on a simple accessible fun level. "Drama doesn't scare me", he's said. "I think comedy is much scarier."
Humor is sometimes subversive, aggressive, and wrong, as are addictions, manic disorders, derangement, and meltdowns. Therefore there could be an unsafe, even suicidal component in unadultered humor. But Stiller provides a protective wall when his characters act scary; he's one of the few comedians who dare to install figuratively the wall that separates naïvety from satire, fear from reality.Article first published as Movie Review: Greenberg on Blogcritics.
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