I saw two interesting films about very flawed and unlikable people on my flight to Singapore, but I’m not sure how much I enjoyed them. However, they did give me some food for thought regarding people’s motivations and actions in life.
The first was Please Give directed by Nicole Holofcener who directed another eviscerating film about rich people called People With Money. Some of the scenes were almost painful to watch and in the end there were two characters that weren’t completely despicable. The un-self aware, nasty, and outspoken grandmother of the Rebecca Hall character hit close to home. Hall and Catherine Keener emerged as the most empathetic and human characters in the film dominated by selfish and un-empathetic narcissists. The older sister, played by Amanda Peet, obsesses about an old boyfriend’s new girlfriend, feels only contempt for her grandmother, and nonchalantly conducts an affair with a married man. I guess it is par for course for a teenager to be spoiled solipsistic and self-involved. I understand that most people are self-involved, but this was almost cringe inducing look into the solipsism of modern American society. I realize that it was supposed to be a comedy but I couldn’t fully enjoy it.
I had mixed feelings about Noah Baumbach’s latest film
starring Ben Stiller, Greenberg . I found it much easier to stomach than his
last outing, Margot At The Wedding.
Greenberg is another narcissist with seemingly little value to offer his
brother’s 20 something assistant Florence, played by Greta Gerwig, except that
she seems lost and without life direction as well. I couldn’t really empathize
with the main character, but I did find him charmingly and very funny in the
party sequence with the college kids later in the film. I wonder if he did any adlibbing
in that sequence some very funny cultural references and interactions taking
place after he snorts cocaine and gets up to play some coke music, which turns
out to be Duran Duran.
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