Chances are Ben Stiller's interview tonight will be the standard comedian chat, just two comics hanging out & trying to make each other lose it on camera --but I took a look to see what he's been up to anyway. He might have Lyme (like about half the people I know), and he's set up a charity that parodies Lance Armstrong's Livestrong (instead of bracelets, Stillerstrong gives out headbands), but mostly what turns up is stuff about his movie Greenberg. The 83 reviews at RottenTomatoes (it opened two weekends ago) give it a Tomatometer rating of 70% -- but judging from the ones I scanned, that sounds optimistic. Roger Ebert liked it, though -- Greenberg is an unlikeable character who Stiller was "born to play'. The synopsis sounds maybe OK:
Roger Greenberg [Ben Stiller], single, fortyish and at a crossroads in his life, finds himself in Los Angeles, house-sitting for six weeks for his more successful/married-with-children brother. In search of a place to restart his life, Greenberg tries to reconnect with old friends including his former bandmate Ivan [Rhys Ifans]. But old friends aren't necessarily still best friends, and Greenberg soon finds himself spending more and more time with his brother's personal assistant Florence [Greta Gerwig], an aspiring singer and also something of a lost soul. Despite his best attempts not to be drawn in, Greenberg and Florence manage to forge a connection, and Greenberg realizes he may at last have found a reason to be happy.
But then there's the discussion of Mumblecore, which sounds like a fashionable name for art-house movies, which in turn is often code for "Most Importantest Films Ever by film-school students on poverty budgets." And apparently it's a Serious comedy. Then there's this, from a recent interview (my emphasis):
Q: Was it a challenge switching gears from comedy for a serious role?
BS: You know, I didn’t see it as a serious role. I just saw it as a movie about characters, rather than servicing an idea or a plot. And I thought that was really refreshing, and exciting. And it’s just nice to be in a movie that allowed space for people to be who they are.
Well, some people like films which aren't concerned with ideas or plots.
Chances are the interview will be mostly fluff, though.
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