This was Baumbach's first poem to his new muse, Greta Gerwig, but it amounts to little more than a predictable romcom plot featuring the sort of tiresome, self-absorbed characters who only actually exist in the world of the tiresome, self-absorbed people who made the film! Noah Baumbach started his directing career promisingly with "The Squid and the Whale" but clearly the elements of humanity/reality that emerge in that film owe more to the semi-autobiographical nature of the film and the selfless, wonderful performances of Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney than they do to Mr Baumbach's incipient talent. Subsequently his films, the charming "Life Aquatic" aside which he co-wrote with Wes Anderson, have become ever more deeply entrenched in the tiresome neurotic middle class world of people that you wouldn't want to spend any time with. Baumbach himself has said that "I always viewed life as material for a movie". That would be fine Noah if you and your life weren't so smug and removed from anything that might be of interest to anyone but you and your circle of friends. Baumbach's new belle, Greta Gerwig, has to date been a fairly anonymous screen persona in big budget movies and a somewhat mannered presence, with her slightly off the beat, faltering way of delivering her dialogue, in the mumblecore movies in which she has built up her reputation. She is apparently unaffected and charming when being interviewed by critics but the "next big thing"? I'm afraid I don't get it! Baumbach's new film "Francis Ha" continues the great romance between Noah and Greta and all that I will say about that much vaunted film is Jean Luc Godard and Anna Karina they are not! I wonder how Jennifer Jason Leigh, Baumbach's previous muse/star/love, and a much more interesting, talented and edgy actress than Gerwig, is finding all of this? So back to "Greenberg". The "hero" of the movie is ex-asylum inmate Roger, played by Ben Stiller. The unpleasant, neurotic gradually falls in love with the sweet, patient, mumbling family P.A. ( yeh we've all got a P.A. haven't we? ). But wouldn't you know it, Roger has a self destructive streak and a horrible personality and yet we know deep down he must be a sensitive soul because hey, he's a carpenter. As this is allegedly a comedy drama various, what I assume are supposed to be amusing, vignettes ensue - I bet Baumbach thought the scenes with the family dog were hilarious! - and the relationship between Florence and Roger evolves. But the structure of the film amounts to little more than a dressed up version of the stereotypical roller coaster romcom narrative until the predictable conclusion arrives. Throughout I couldn't find any redeeming features. The script is awkward, the cinematography flat and lifeless and the score amounts to little more than the standard indie assemblage of sensitive songs. We are first introduced to "Roger" as he looks out of a window and we see the back of head and then suddenly he turns and we have a "wow it's Ben Stiller" moment. I'm not sure what sort of ego you have to have to be introduced into a movie in this way? All that I can say to Mr Stiller is whilst that sort of set up might work in "Once Upon a Time in the West" for an icon like Henry Fonda you Mr Stiller are just that guy who played second fiddle to museum exhibits. What we have here is the equivalent of a home movie about dull, hermetically sealed lives – Baumbach came from the Brooklyn home of a film critic, Stiller's parents are comedy stars – and so what would they know about real life? ( Walt Stillman by the way is even worse!). What Roger needs isn't the love of a good woman it's a good slap! He's not a sad, lost psychologically damaged product of an alienating world he's a product of over indulgence. I don't pity him I pity myself for having to spend time with these people and their tedious "please understand how sensitive I am and just look how difficult it is for me to be me" whining. I'm convinced that the liberal world view of the twerps behind this movie would be that if you are an unpleasant, loud mouthed blue collar guy you are classed as a sociopath but if you are self-hating, human horror like Roger but from the right background then you are essentially a misunderstood, sensitive soul and you need to be loved and sympathised with. I can only assume that these people have inflicted this film upon us because they think there is something of interest or merit in the project, perhaps something about the need for us ordinary little folk to have empathy with all overindulged, damaged upper middle class people, but I can assure them that the film is about as insightful into the human condition as a Micheal Bay film. In the real world people with real lives and real issues haven't got time to collect neuroses, haven't got the ability to live out their latest affairs on screen in multi million dollar projects, and haven't got the arrogance to assume that anyone would be in the slightest bit interested in their tedious lives. Someone should make these people sit down and watch "Cache" by Michael Haneke and then spend a further 6 months studying the various layers of the film, the personal and universal themes, the politics, the history, the humanity contained in that film and then they would realise that compared with someone like Mr Haneke they are not very clever at all. Then who knows, with a bit of humility, a proper education in European cinema (not just bumbling through a viewing of "A Bout de soufflé" and "Bande a part" ) and an enlarged world view they just might gain some understanding into why I dislike this useless film?