GreenbergMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 76 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 Iffy for 17+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 90
    The New York Times | A.O. Scott

    It is the funniest and saddest movie Mr. Baumbach has made so far, and also the riskiest. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    Powerfully honest, insightful and poignant. Read full review

  • 88
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    I have a weakness for actresses like Greta Gerwig. She looks reasonable and approachable. Read full review

  • 83
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Baumbach's movies are addictive dispatches from a genteel jungle of white privilege, where highly educated people behave badly. I can't take my eyes off the exotic wildlife. Read full review

  • 75
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    See this darkly comic character study unburdened by preconceptions. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Jennifer Jason Leigh (Baumbach's wife) appears in two scenes, as an ex-girlfriend of Greenberg, and she's quietly brilliant, as always. Read full review

  • 75
    Washington Post | Ann Hornaday

    A delicate, if slightly smoggy, feeling of regret hangs over Greenberg, a quietly funny portrait of grown-ups growing up. Read full review

  • 70
    The Hollywood Reporter | Kirk Honeycutt

    While winning no points for originality, Baumbach and his co-conspirator in the script, Jennifer Jason Leigh -- have created an all-too-convincing portrait of a 40-year-old man in emotional freefall. Read full review

  • 70
    Variety | Todd McCarthy

    As a study of stasis and of people conscious of not living the lives they had imagined for themselves, the picture offers a bracing undertow of seriousness beneath the deceptively casual, dramatically offhand surface. Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times | Betsy Sharkey

    Any comic relief it affords comes with such an undertow of repressed emotions and displaced anger that it all starts to feel more depressing than dramatic. Read full review

View more reviews for Greenberg on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 17+ Unhealthy relationship is focus of darkly funny adult drama.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this darkly comedic drama is not meant for kids. Director Noah Baumbach, as in his other films, stakes his film firmly in messy, sometimes caustic, emotional terrain -- one character has just been discharged from a mental hospital, another gets an abortion -- that may be too mature for most teens. The film's protagonist (Ben Stiller) is a malcontent who rails against injustices small and large -- especially small. Swearing (everything from “asshole” to “dick” to “f--k”) and insults are part of his usual patter. His love interest endures continuous emotional battering, and comes back for more. There’s also a fairly graphic oral sex scene, and a scene where an adult does cocaine with college students.
  • Families can talk about Roger: Why is he the way he is and what does he gain by being that grumpy? What are the costs?
  • What attracts Roger and Florence to each other? Is it a believable coupling? Is it healthy? Is it typical of Hollywood movies?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Even the most cynical of men appears to be redeemable by -- what else? -- love. That’s the good and bad of the film, because he’s downright nasty to the woman, and yet she embraces him, literally and emotionally, over and over again so that it’s almost a masochistic exercise.
  • rolemodels true0 Positive role models: Neither of the main characters is particularly stable, but one is compassionate and caring, to a fault. And the other takes a while to see the value in human interaction, but eventually comes around.
What to watch for
  • violence false1 Violence: A character spews venom out of the blue, so his rage hits hard sometimes. Some expletive-riddled shouting matches.
  • sex false4 Sex: A man performs oral sex on a woman; the scene is shot from afar, so no body parts are exposed. A woman’s breast can be glimpsed in the shadows briefly. Another exchanges sexual banter with a much older man. A couple has sex on a couch; no genitals shown.
  • language false4 Language: Everything from “damn” to “bitch” to “f--k” -- and plenty of it. Also, a few uses of "God" and "Jesus" as exclamations.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Social drinking; a forty-something man helps host a party for college students, and everyone is pretty much buzzed or sloshed. Some characters snort cocaine at a party.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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Dave White

4.0

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"Hurt people hurt people." Read full review See Dave White's on MOVIENAME on Movies.com

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