Greenberg at Tyneside Cinema

By admin on June 15, 2010 in Film

The Tyneside Cinema’s transition into a meeting place for overly sensitive twentysomethings going through quarterlife crises is firmly underway as its Mumblecore Season enters its second day.

Tonight it’s the turn of Humpday, a brilliantly subtle and occasionally hilarious tale of two straight friends who decide to make a gay porn film together. Written by and starring mumblecore heavyweight Mark Duplass, the film is arguably the highlight of the season.

Greenberg (showing until June 24), however, is the movie that’ll no doubt act as the introduction to the lo-fi movement for most (starring, as it does, Ben Stiller and Rhys Ifans) which is a shame because – although admittedly brilliant in parts – it lacks a little of the understated magic of its indie forebears. Nevertheless, Noah Baumbach’s latest effort is every bit as comically dark as his twisted 2005 tale of midlife crisis and divorce, The Squid and the Whale.

Stiller plays Roger Greenberg, a failed musician turned carpenter who is invited to stay at his wealthy brother’s palatial LA home following a breakdown. Roger soon finds himself falling for his brother’s young housekeeper Florence (played by the inimitable Greta Gerwig) and is torn between his growing love for the equally disillusioned employee and the cold reality of his no-hope future.

Packed full of soul searching, soul-baring, neuroticism, awkwardness and hilarity (due in no small part to an excellent turn by Ifans as Greenberg’s old bandmate, Ivan) Greenberg would be genuinely excellent if its actors weren’t too tied to the script. But, nevertheless, the movie acts as perhaps the finest tribute to the age-old maxim of “life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.”

[googleMap name="Tyneside Cinema" description="10 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 6QG, 0845 217 9909" width="500" height="350" directions_to="false"]10 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear, NE1 6QG[/googleMap]

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