Greenberg

At age 45, it feels like writer-director Noah Baumbach is getting soft. Best known for his caustic tragicomedies like Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg, and Margot at the Wedding, he took a turn in tone for his 2012 feature Frances Ha, which starred and was co-written by Greta Gerwig. So, though the warmth of that film might surprise someone familiar with his work, that it’s a collaboration with Gerwig explains at least part of that tone. While We’re Young, though, Baumbach’s newest film which premiered at TIFF this year and made a surprise appearance at the New York Film Festival, manages to carry that affection. It’s hard to top Frances Ha, but his newest is pleasant and impressive all the same.

Witty, insightful and unapologetically New York, are just a few ways writer-director Noah Baumbach has been described. Born and raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn, Baumbach made his writing and directing debut with Kicking and Screaming, immediately drawing comparisons to both Woody Allen and Whit Stillman. Through his seminal film, he’s received an Academy Award nomination for …

Frances Ha Directed by Noah Baumbach United States, 2012 Frances Ha, Noah Baumbach’s follow-up to 2010’s Greenberg, shot on the sly in New York City, has all the feel of the (sometimes) dreaded mumblecore tag in its first 15 minutes, but quickly shakes the comparison to be a sweet, funny film that leans heavily on …

#20 – Valhalla Rising Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Nicolas Winding Refn, who made the underrated Bronson in England and the striking Pusher series in Denmark creates a brutal, yet thoughtful, re-envisioning of the Viking saga. This Malick/Jodorowsky hybrid is one of the best looking films in recent memory. Its breathtaking digital photography across the …

Greenberg Directed by Noah Baumbach Noah Baumbach has made another movie ostensibly about sad white people, but what he shows us is just plain human. It’s about how we change, or don’t, when the world changes around us.  It’s about how we react to tenderness, and how we perceive, or don’t perceive, ourselves in those moments. Roger and …

The best soundtracks of 2010 are somewhat varied and random. Not always does a great film produce great music and sometimes a horrible film can have decent music, there is no pattern. Thus, I have made my own very subjective selective pattern. Using my main theory that a soundtrack is best when it reflects and …

Greenberg Directed by Noah Baumbach Ben Stiller has spent the most lucrative part of his acting career refining his screen persona as a sullen, narcissistic pratfall factory. History has suggested there is more to him–both as a comedian and as a dramatist–but history also suggested that he did two Night at the Museum movies and something called Meet …

Day One As opposed to Cannes (open only to film professionnals), the Berlin Film Festival is open to everyone, and it is possible to see people lining for hours (sometimes under the snow) in order to get tickets for films from Taiwan, Latvia or Paraguay. This gives the entire city a really festive touch, with …

Despite that fact that the competition this year underwhelmed (see Shane Danielsen’s column) there were sill some pleasant surprises and curiosities that are helping 2010 become another great year in film.  Two recent releases premiered over the past couple weeks.  Martin Scosesse’s Shutter Island got a mixed response, which translated the same stateside.  While Roman …