Greenberg Movie Trailer: Noah Baumbach Returns

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A song can make all the difference to a trailer. This first footage from Noah Baumbach’s new comedy / drama Greenberg could be seriously depressing, were it not for the bouncy ‘All My Friends’ by LCD Soundsystem. Ben Stiller, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Greta Gerwig star in the film that was called Greenberg, then was untitled, and is now apparently called Greenberg once more. Check it out after the break.

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We had a couple of preview pics that came out of the American Film Market not too long ago, but this is a much better taste of the film. Seems like it’s significantly more upbeat than Baumbach’s last film, Margot at the Wedding, even without the James Murphy / LCD Soundsystem bounce. (And, as the trailer proclaims, there’s new music from Murphy on the soundtrack, which could be a great thing.) Ben Stiller looks good, Greta Gerwig looks great and I’m psyched to see Rhys Ifans have such a big presence in the trailer. I’ll always be curious to know what the film would have been like with original cast members Mark Ruffalo and Amy Adams, but this could work fine.

You can get another taste of Baumbach’s scripting this week as Fantastic Mr. Fox, which he co-wrote, goes into wide release. That movie is great, which (thankfully) counters the pessimism I’ve had towards it since the trailer hit. I’ll happily eat some crow over that in the review I’m polishing off right now.

Check out Apple’s presentation of the trailer to see it in HD. And here’s the official synopsis and a small version of the poster.

Meet Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller): a dysfunctional 40-year-old at a crossroads in his life.  Roger wants to “do nothing” for a while, so he agrees to housesit for his younger and more successful brother, giving him a free place to stay in L.A.  While in town, he tries to reconnect with his old friends and band mates but times have changed, and old friends aren’t necessarily still best friends.  Greenberg starts spending time with his brother’s personal assistant Florence (Great Gerwig), an aspiring singer and herself something of a lost soul too.  During a series of embarrassingly awkward romantic encounters, we sense that perhaps even someone as irascible as Greenberg may have found somebody who is prepared to appreciate him for himself - if he would only stop critiquing Florence’s techniques in bed.  Over the course of several weeks, we watch an uncertain and wonderfully vulnerable courtship play out, and learn how funny, and terribly unpredictable, love in the modern world can be.

  • Shane
    Anything Jennifer Jason Leigh is involved with, I'm in.
  • sean
    this is the first time ive seen her in a movie where she didnt horrify me
  • jrice73
    Interesting. May just have to see that.
  • Palmer
    This looks pretty good, it'd be nice to see Ben Stiller do something more grounded in reality.
  • I'm really digging the trailer. Just has that vibe that could fill up a nice evening on the couch.
  • LCD Soundsytem's "All My Friends" works really nicely with the trailer. Glad to see Stiller doing a "good" film. First since Tenenbaums?
  • Garber
    I dug Tropic Thunder and Zoolander, the two comedies he directed. I like the off-kilter sense of humor he displayed in those and on The Ben Stiller Show. Now his non-directorial comedies on the other hand...
  • That was pretty good . . . right up until the "very-meaningful-closeups-of-smiling young-people".
    It could go either way.
  • lipslikeasukal
    If the movie is just that LCD Soundsystem song on a loop and I'm allowed to close my eyes... then I'm sold.
  • Joe
    "All My Friends" is what got me to watch the trailer.

    The trailer interested me.

    "New music by James Murphy" sold me.
  • jerry seinfeld
    another movie with some 40 year old guys hooking up with 20 year old chicks. hollywood is so progressive.
  • ED
    Could you have said it more perfectly? Agreed completely.
  • I cant wait for this. Looks awesomely cathartic.
  • Loki
    I actually saw the entire movie at a preview in October. They described it as a "work-in-progress". They weren't kidding, it was painful to watch. No real plot, the Greenberg character was not likeable and did not evolve or progress at all during the movie. It could have been like Stranger Than Fiction or Lost In Translation. Instead it was just lost...
  • ED
    I haven't seen the film and I can certainly relate to your sense of alienation just from viewing the trailer.
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