Yes. I hate this movie. The last line makes me want to kill Jim from the Office and Maya Rudolph. Any movie that could inspire murderous feelings for people that likable is truly a piece of shit.
I'll defend this movie. I saw it when I was unemployed and horribly depressed. I felt like a failure on the verge of becoming an irredeemable asshole. I think if I had continued down that road, I might have become a lot like Greenberg: a guy with a lot of potential who got some bad breaks, failed, eventually gave up, and spent the rest of his life taking it out on everyone else.
Is that a good person to become? No. I'm glad I did not become that person, and it doesn't really make me happy to watch Ben Stiller pretend to be that person either. On the other hand, that fear is there. Greenberg is a relatable character because, as shitty as he is, it seems like not a huge stretch to believe I could end up like that after enough miserable failure.
At the same time, Greenberg maintains a small speck of the decent person he probably once was. It comes through a few times in the movie, briefly, and then more forcefully [spoiler] in the final voicemail he leaves Greta Gerwig. Her response, "This is you" is meant to signal her recognition of the good part of him, the part that is possibly still worth trying to get to know.
That said, I agree that it is pretty unrealistic that anyone as seemingly awesome as her character would put up with enough of Greenberg's shit to get to the point where you might recognize the small redemptive part of his soul. And even if she DID get that far, it's debatable whether even that part of him is worth the effort.
But ultimately, the movie is a reminder to people going through hard times and letting those hard times turn them into piles of shit, that there might still be something worth loving at the bottom of that pile of shit. I think that is a useful reminder, even if it comes through a pretty flawed set-up.
At least we know exactly what we're going to get in both movies, thanks to those titles! My vote is for Crazy, Stupid Love, because at least that one leaves a LITTLE more to the imagination.
I liked Riley a lot more on my second viewing, after reaching adulthood. When you're young, you're like "He's boring and milquetoast," but when you get older you're like "Enough drama, Buff, take the stand-up guy who actually treats you like he likes you." Basically I'm saying Riley is me, and I take all this Riley-bashing very personally.
Haha, actually they turned the frat house into some kind of inescapable haunted mansion, with like plants everywhere, and weird sexual stuff going on. Their hot steaminess unleashed some pent up sexual energy from a creepy old religious nut (played by Mrs. Landingham!) who ran an orphanage and molested the kids, basically.
It's one of the only episodes of Buffy that I think it truly terrible.
I have slowly re-watched the whole series with a friend who hadn't seen it over the last year or so (a few episodes a week). We just finished Season 6, which is my very favorite (cue controversy!). It's probably my third time through the series, but I get so much out of it every time. I just love that show.
Is that the movie where John Cusack is a bank robber and also, IT'S CHRISTMAS?! Or is that the one with Ben Affleck and something something? I can't remember.
I was also going to nominate The Family Man. I think it is a defensible movie, on some levels, but it DOES have Nicolas Cage and it DOES have that annoying "what if i took the other road" plot line that SEEMS original when you see it when you're 14 and wistful, but later when you realize that EVERYONE wonders that sometimes and comes up with the same nostalgia but that REALLY you can't go back and even if you could you would likely not be any happier and also you are a grown up so stop whining about your high school girlfriend, THAT'S when you realize, this movie is dumb.
It is basically "The Two Paths of Virginia Apple," THE MOVIE starring NICOLAS CAGE!
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