Noah Baumbach, at least briefly, has reminded us that Ben Stiller was once a decent comedic actor who we didn’t all despise with heat of a pre-lawsuit cup of McDonald’s coffee. Granted, just last year, Stiller made the best movie he’s made in five years (Tropic Thunder), but it’s going to take a lot more than a great Robert Downey, Jr. performance to make us forget all the Night at the Museum and Meet My Fuck Buddy movies (let’s not even mention Along Came Polly or The Heartbreak Kid).
Anyway, Stiller looks fantastic in this trailer for Baumbach’s Greenburg, though it’s hard not to want to jump through the screen and cut his fucking hair. It’s something of a mid-life crisis slacker indie, about a guy who moves from NYC to L.A. to figure out his life while he’s house-sitting for his brother. Rhys Ifans and mumblecore hero Mark Duplass also star, along with the mesmerizing Greta Gerwig, who has some potential to be a break-out star here (she’s pretty!).
Just watch the trailer — hipster douchebags will love it, then hate it because Ben Stiller is in it, but then remember how great “The Ben Stiller Show” and Reality Bites were, and then forgive themselves. And then listen to The Decemberists and forget all about it.
OMG...I'm turning into Ben Stiller. That rant there at the end...has someone been listening to me go off about everything and just writing it down? Should I sue?
Posted by: PissBoy at November 24, 2009 10:03 AM
It had me at the perky nipples. Hee, nipples.
I also only wanted to kill Stiller only half way. That's saying something.
I love Rhys Ifans in almost everything he's been in, he just has a particular magnetism. But dear god this his hipster douchebag written all over it.
Watching this trailer I felt I was being transformed into a hipster douchebag.
I'll sit comfortably on the fence about this one until we know more.
Posted by: Sostra at November 24, 2009 10:15 AM
Something about Ben Stiller subdued + LCD Soundsystem + My Deep, Murderous Hatred of Children made me actully sort of like this. Is that wrong? That's wrong isn't it, I'm so sorry.
Posted by: Jeremy Feist at November 24, 2009 10:18 AM
Wow. I hated this movie within the first three seconds of dialogue. After watching the full trailer I'm ready to lay siege to a small Flemish village, putting the men to the sword, enslaving the women and children and putting the whole town to the torch. Then I'll salt the Earth so that nothing may grow there for a thousand years.
Posted by: Tracer Bullet at November 24, 2009 10:22 AM
I don't know why you need to take it out on the good people of Flemland Flanders.
Is this set in the '70s? That would explain the hair, but ... did they have Starbucks in the '70s?
Geez, I haven't seen a Stiller movie since "NatM" and that was purely by accident, because it was on the hotel TV while I was staying in NYC two blocks from the American Museum of Natural History, where I'd just been that morning (so don't judge me).
And Greta IS kinda pretty, but not overly so. For a change she looks like the girlfriend a guy like Stiller with '70s hair might actually have. Are we maybe starting to see a little minitrend of more average-pretty girls like (cue Slim rant) Kristen Stewart getting romantic leads over supermodel types slathering their parts on the Vince Vaughns of the world?
Posted by: , (just , cause I'm tired of typing that other shit) at November 24, 2009 10:29 AM
It's kind of remarkable how much Ben Stiller looks like Ted Danson in that photo. Where everybody knows your name.....
Posted by: Prisco at November 24, 2009 10:30 AM
Flanders? They're going to bur-diddly -urn?
Posted by: mrcreosote at November 24, 2009 10:39 AM
I have a feeling I'm about to cough up a long comment, so apologies in advance.
So --
Let's see if we can accurately pin down this movie: man, "at sea in his own life," learns to live and love again.
I think that's pretty much it, and, from the looks of the trailer, there's probably not anything more complicated than that. Which is not necessarily a BAD thing. (I mean, it's a pretty common story: someone, who is disconnected and disaffected, learns to find their place in the world, blah blah.)
What I found depressing about this trailer is that it seems all so... WHINEY. You choose to do nothing? Really? The problems (the "angst") of this movie are really just the flip-side of privilege.
And I'd be offended if I wasn't so bored already.
Posted by: Tracer Bullet at November 24, 2009 10:54 AM
Is Rhys Ifans Ben Stiller's brother in this? Do not get.
Also, people who don't know what to do with their lives annoy the crap out of me (which is good if I'm constipated, and not so good when I'm not, which is most of the time). You get a job so you can pay for the crap you stuff through the hole in your head. That's life. Use it or lose it.
Posted by: BWeaves at November 24, 2009 10:56 AM
Ben Stiller has quickly devolved into the poor mans Robin Williams, who was already the poor mans Steve Martin, and considering some of the travesties Steve Martin has inflicted on the world, I'd put Ben Stillers value to the world somewhere between the birthmark on the left side of my asshole, and Dane Cook, himself the poor mans Ben Stiller.
Greta Gerwig is an unfortunate name. Gerwig reminds me of earwig, and earwigs freak me out.
She is pretty, though.
Posted by: MM at November 24, 2009 11:12 AM
Here we go, Stiller, here we go.
*Pittsburgh joke. And wasn't Pittsburgh a joke on Sunday?*
Posted by: , (just , cause I'm tired of typing that other shit) at November 24, 2009 11:38 AM
Okay, from my admittedly half-assed internet research I figure that Stiller is nearly 20 years Gerwig's senior. Is that part of the movie's premise? Because if it's not, I'm going to be really fucking irritated.
Posted by: samantha t at November 24, 2009 12:04 PM
I like Rhys Ifan. He has a certain quality about him. Scruffy, possibly stinky, yes yes, true. But what a good actor.
I don't really get the foaming loathing of Ben Stiller. He is what he is. If he acted like a starletard douchebag in public, OK, hate away.
I like the clip where he hits the SUV fro cutting him off. I have TOTALLY done that, but I didn't run afterward. I'm badass like that.
I'M WALKING HERE, BITCH!
Posted by: Lindsey with an 'e' at November 24, 2009 12:53 PM
Greta looks like a young Mare Winningham then morphs into some other girl...
That hair makes Ben Stiller look like Daniel Day Lewis.
Is it weird actors morph into each other? I'm freaked out by the inter-changeability.
Posted by: BananaPanda at November 24, 2009 1:40 PM
I'll probably watch it for Mark Duplass, who I love (in spite of the fact that Humpday annoyed me slightly). But I won't watch it for Ben Stiller.
Posted by: Smokin at November 24, 2009 1:45 PM
Right on the nose, BananaPanda. It's like we're sharing the same brain. You're so smart and I love your outfit. Do you like Korean food? I know this great Korean bbq place if you do.
Posted by: jM at November 24, 2009 2:00 PM
BananaPanda, you're new here, so trust me when I tell you that you should pass on that dinner invitation.
Posted by: Tracer Bullet at November 24, 2009 2:08 PM
I read a story somewhere a long while ago that Stiller brought a bagel to a restaurant and instructed the waiter on how to prepare it for him while having breakfast with friends.
My appreciation of Mr. Stiller's work has since been marred by this story. I can't seem to get past the douchery that is feeling entitled to preferred treatment.
Also: I love Along Came Polly if only for PSH's scene devouring.
Posted by: Kelly Booth at November 24, 2009 3:02 PM
Ummmm I dunno.
Love Noah Bumbach.
Not so much Ben Stiller.
BUT
I have that Henry's Tacos t-shirt that Ms. Earwig is wearing! Henry's is AWESOME.
Posted by: Chickaboom at November 24, 2009 4:02 PM
Um...the song is "where are your friends" by LCD Soundsystem...not the decemberists--unless they have some mutual band members...
Posted by: sherry at November 24, 2009 5:00 PM
Yeah.
This would be a violation of our "No Ben Stiller" policy (established in 2004 right around the release of "Meet the Fockers", coincidentally). It limits the amount of time anyone in the household is permitted to view materials containing, mentioning, involved with or referring to Ben Stiller. There was a whole lot of paperwork filed just so we would be allowed to watch "Tropic Thunder" (There was a loophole discovered re: RDJ cancels out Ben Stiller)
It's just not worth it. I would rather expend my energy on possibly repealing the more recent bans on Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn or Will Farrell.
Posted by: greer at November 24, 2009 7:48 PM
I love Baumbach enough to trust him. Saw the trailer last night, and loved it.
Posted by: Kevin Longrie at November 24, 2009 8:46 PM
Jesus Christ, I thought that picture was of Keith Richards.
Posted by: CL at November 24, 2009 9:40 PM
I have to admit ... it's weird seeing jennifer jason leigh in this ...
not because I didn't expect her to be in this kind of film but I forgot that she even existed ...
Posted by: lelnguye at November 25, 2009 3:11 AM
I really think Ben Stiller might be much funnier and more relevant as a writer and/or director than he is as a performer; see Tropic Thunder, Zoolander and The Cable Guy vs Meet the Parents or whatever.
Posted by: Daniel Hall at November 26, 2009 6:38 PM
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