Greenberg

Presenting one of the most cohesive and uniform portraits of a self-centered asinine son of a bitch, Noah Baumbach's Greenberg is a blunt, comedic character study of a troubled messed up individual. Completely unaware and unconcerned with the social ramifications of causes and effects, Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) problematically engages with the outside world according to his own set of unpredictable and obsessive rules. Enter Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig), a helpful confused relaxed yet energetic housekeeper with a big heart and a cheerful disposition. She meets Greenberg when his brother (Chris Messina) asks him to look after his place in Los Angeles for a couple of weeks while he travels throughout Vietnam. The two quickly commence an offbeat association and the film generally focuses on their mischievous miscues. You'll likely spend a lot of time wondering how she could possibly put up with Greenberg, as he consistently screws up every situation within which they happen to find themselves. In fact, Greenberg's strength lies in the lack of sympathy it develops for its title character. Baumbach crafts scene after scene where Greenberg lets his fabricated hang ups ruin the social interaction. But Florence sees something within which no one else can and keeps coming back time and time again, often reluctantly, always ready to give him a seventh or eighth chance. And through her devotion one learns to love (or at least tolerate) pesky Greenberg as he rashly applies his determination to whatever spur of the moment idea he suddenly considers compelling.