While watching Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, I experienced a kind of cognitive dissonance. The movie succeeds in being totally un-pleasurable. As I became more emotionally discomfited by the interactions on screen, I could feel my body slumping lower and lower into the futon. At the same time, the movie is riveting, because it is really good-- thought-provoking, clever, unpredictable-- a handful of other descriptors that any film should aspire to be. Finally, Greta Gerwig is a vision. She creates an uncannily natural performance. Because she doesn't appear to be performing at all, her scenes are the most uncomfortable, because we feel like we are watching something we really shouldn't be. She appears unrehearsed, awkward in her own skin, someone from whom we would avert our eyes in real life. That being said, the entire movie consists of interactions from which we would probably avert our eyes in real life.
