A Tubful of Laughs

Breaking news at calgaryherald.com FRIDAY MOVIES Friday, March 26, 2010 C5 A tubful of laughs Stiller’s Greenberg Time Machine will stick with you a very vulgar CHRIS KNIGHT REVIEW CANWEST NEWS SERVICE Greenberg and funny flick Starring Ben Stiller, Chris Messina, Ben Stiller’s last four live-action Jennifer Jason Leigh films, and most of his work since and Susan Traylor. Zoolander in 2001, in fact, have Directed by Noah Baumbach been marketed as Ben Stiller mov- HHHH out of five JAY ies, with the actor’s mug front and centre and very large in the people are defined by what they STONE coming-attractions posters. say. Roger’s seemingly offhand Compare that style with his tiny remarks prove deeper than they picture on the mostly empty ads first sound, and also illuminate his for Greenberg, head tilted back personality, delineated early on in an up-the-nose shot backlit by with the news that he’s just been here’s a scene near the be- a frizz of hair. For all we can see released from a mental hospital ginning of Hot Tub Time of the features, it might be Jesse following a nervous breakdown. TMachine when some guys Eisenberg or Michael Cera. It “All the men out here dress like get into a hot tub and are trans- could be anyone. children and the children dress ported back 25 years in time. Well, to some degree, it could. like superheroes,” he observes “It must be some kind of hot- Greenberg is not a Ben Stiller after being dragged to a party by tub time machine,” one of them movie. It’s the latest from writer- Ivan. Later, he delivers a fantastic, says, staring significantly at the director Noah Baumbach, whose drug-fuelled paranoid rant to a camera, and maybe that’s all you breakout feature, The Squid and group of mildly drunk 20-year- need to know about this cheer- Courtesy, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures the Whale, was Oscar-nominated olds, simultaneously praising fully vulgar comedy that’s sort of The dopey gang of Hot Tub features, from left, Craig Robinson, Rob for best screenplay of 2005, and his own generation and burying an X-rated Back to the Future, but Corddry, Clark Duke and John Cusack. which he followed up with Mar- it. He’s also a compulsive writer with lots more booze. got at the Wedding. of letters of complaint, berating The epiphany is enunciated REVIEW The Hangover, for instance, had a Greenberg continues Baum- American Airlines for a non-re- by Nick (Craig Robinson), one Hot Tub Time Machine similar rough-and-tumble ethic, bach’s trend of talky, funny, clining seat, and Starbucks for an of three friends who have made Starring John Cusack, Rob Cord- made up mostly of teasing, pain, surprisingly grown-up films. atmosphere of faux culture that a return trip to an old ski resort dry and Craig Robinson. profanity and homophobia. Cord- Stiller plays Roger Greenberg, a “sucks.” where, back in 1986, they had Directed by Steve Pink dry, a veteran of this kind of thing 40-year-old Los Angelino who Stiller is revelatory in this role, some wild weekends. They’re HHH out of five (he was in Harold and Kumar Es- long ago moved to New York City so sullen as to make his other all slightly down on their luck cape from Guantanamo Bay and and picked up every neurosis for characters seem downright manic now: Nick’s singing career never too much, the three friends hop What Happens in Vegas) is espe- which its inhabitants (in the mov- in comparison. And while there’s panned out, Lou (Rob Corddry) into the hot tub and are magically cially adept at the passive-aggres- ies, at least) are famous. almost always a layer of self-loath- is an angry failure who is also sent back to the time of Ronald sive ranting that is the keystone When Roger’s brother and ing to him, stretching back to the suicidal, friendless, trapped in Reagan, big hair, Alf, Miami Vice, of such adolescent humour. family take off for a Vietnamese hapless Ted in There’s Something a bad job and suffers from both cassette players, “Where’s the That is to say, the butterfly ef- vacation, Roger returns to L.A. to About Mary, Stiller in Greenberg halitosis and erectile dysfunction beef?” T-shirts, cellphones the fect is dealt with only insofar as house-sit and build a doghouse is positively unlikable, given to — his friends helpfully provide a size of, well, phones, and what the concept is invited to take part for Mahler, their German shep- pointless fits of rage and a com- list of shortcomings — and Adam one hopes is the final Michael in an unnatural sex act. herd. (The fact that it’s named af- plete lack of social graces. (John Cusack) is a loner, recently Jackson joke ever, although it’s a Despite the time-machine plot, ter an early Modernist composer But the real find in the film is abandoned by his girlfriend, the pretty good one. the film is mostly about vulgarity tells us volumes about the family; Gerwig, whose guileless, under- guy who never lived up to his The men have to make sure and making fun of the 1980s, with this is the kind of cinematic short- stated performance as Roger’s potential. they do whatever it was that they a bit of melancholy thrown in. hand at which Baumbach excels.) 25-year-old love interest nails her They return to Kodiak Val- did back in 1986 — break up with Cusack, one of the film’s produc- Roger soon runs into his brother’s part — the slightly insecure, root- ley, scene of their glory days, to that girlfriend, get into that fight, ers, is still playing that heartbro- personal assistant, Florence less 25-year-old who has realized find an economically distressed sing with that band — so they ken guy who seems too smart for (Greta Gerwig), and finds himself she’s been out of university now town and a crumbling resort that don’t alter the past too much the room. weirdly, almost compulsively, for as long as she was in it, but is includes a bitter, one-armed bell- while their hot tub is being re- “We were young,” he remi- drawn to her. uncertain what to do with that hop, played by Crispin Glover: paired. The repairman is Chevy nisces. “We had momentum. We At the same time, he is hanging insight. Baumbach has — I don’t Yes, it’s George McFly himself, Chase, adding another note of were winning.” It’s a sad tone, out with his old friend Ivan (Rhys want to call it a problem with end- underlining the time-travel faded glory. but it doesn’t take long before a Ifans) and dreaming about hook- ings, but his movies often seem theme, if you can call it that, However, Hot Tub Time Ma- scene of, say, projectile vomiting ing up with long-ago-girlfriend to come to a sudden, unexpected and adding a note of impending chine doesn’t cleave too reli- re-establishes the fun. Beth (Baumbach’s wife, Jennifer halt. Perhaps it’s because the char- bloodshed. Back in 1986, he had giously to the idea that the past The result is a hopelessly Jason Leigh). Unfortunately, Beth acters feel so real, we can’t imag- two arms, and we know that, must be preserved: the characters dopey film that nonetheless has is no more than mildly pleased to ine them suddenly fading to black if we wait long enough, we’ll go off on their own adventures something of what Cusack is talk- see him again, and Ivan is trying while the credits roll. Greenberg see the blood spurting from his with the devil-may-care attitude ing about: youth and momentum. to forget that Roger was the one ends with a remark that would go shoulder when he finally loses hinted at in the title. This is very Its jokes are alternately juvenile who broke up their promising unnoticed if it weren’t the final one of them. much from the Snakes on a Plane and disgusting, the acting is band back in university. It’s like line in the movie. It’s not when Accompanied by Adam’s school of high-concept cinema, broad and calculated, the politics a train-wreck version of This Is Ivan says: “It’s huge to finally em- nephew Jacob (Clark Duke), play- tied to the slipshod kind of comic are regressive and the plot is in- Your Life. brace the life you never planned,” ing the role of the guy who won’t coarseness that distinguishes the coherent. But it does have a great In a trait we’ve come to ex- though that’s a nice one. It’s sim- get born if they change the past contemporary buddy comedy. title. pect from Baumbach’s scripts, pler. And it will follow you home. ADVERTISING FEATURE The Quays and becomes clear when nity mixers. gateway stepping into a Terrace Condo for After a recent mixer in the main park [Pearce Estate Park] and you the first time. Phase 2 of the Steel, building’s Bistro, residents have forget you’re in the middle of Calgary Concrete and Brick structure has really begun to take notice of James’ and only five minutes to downtown,” to started. photography talents. said Ina. With 5.7 hectares of land, River- Mike Sali, Riverside Quay’s head side Quays is a massive undertaking of sales, knows the drawing power nature in community building that will take of Pearce Estate Park and the Bow five years to complete.

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