"Greenberg"

I went to eat at the Spaghetti Factory with the DMTC folks this evening, but feeling a little anti-social with my cold, instead of seeing "Altar Boyz" at RSP with them, I chose instead to see "Greenberg" on opening night at the Tower Theatre.

A cohort of folks in the theater clearly knew Greta Gerwig. They erupted into applause upon first seeing her. Seeing her walk Mahler, the German Shepherd, someone in the audience said "That's so Greta!"

A large murmur arose in the audience at another point, where 'Florence' shows 'Greenberg' a picture of herself and her father. Presumably a number of people in the audience knows both Greta and her father. Presumably the picture is genuine (?)

The movie itself is a sort of rage-against-aging movie. When Greenberg seems to seethe against young people at a party, because he's heard how much different the younger generation is because of cell phones, MySpace, etc., it was interesting to see how easily the younger folks parried him, and how kind they were about it, too. Certainly youth is kind, in more ways than one! And Greenberg slowly, haltingly comes to terms with the need to take adult responsibility....

The movie seems to be a sort-of descendant of the angst-ridden Woody Allen movies of the 70's. A movie that focuses on minutiae. Not quite 'Annie Hall', but with a family resemblance - the branch of the neurotic family that happened to settle in LA.


P.S.: Taking note of Armond White's caustic review of "Greenberg", he states:

I liked Harris Savides’ image of Stiller barely swimming across a pool....

I really liked this imagery too, and the scene, but for different reasons than White does. The sound track features the sound of a distant mourning dove, then a crow. Living in Sacramento, I have to say nothing evokes life in California quite like that particular soundscape. It's perfect! Wonderful job!