Ben Stiller

Like cinematic malaria, ‘Zoolander 2’ drains your resistance with its fever-dream insanity.

Though well-acted and capably directed, the heavy-handedness of Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young makes it one of his lesser efforts. Baumbach tries to anticipate the impending clash between Gen X bitterness and Millennial entitlement, but the execution feels uncomfortably Braff-ish. You’ll probably leave the theater smiling, but we’ve come to expect something a little more substantial from an observant filmmaker like Baumbach.

Noah Baumbach’s last few films have been about protagonists doing nothing, or at least trying to give the illusion of doing something. Ben Stiller’s Greenberg said as much, even while slowly building a doghouse for his brother. Greta Gerwig’s Frances Halloway was a professional dancer who didn’t dance to the point that it made her “undateable”. Baumbach’s latest film While We’re Young is about yet another form of stagnation: middle age. A married couple of forty-somethings encounter a married couple of twenty-somethings, and that illusion that they’re doing everything they’re meant to be doing at this age quickly fades away.

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Written by David Guion and Michael Handelman Directed by Shawn Levy USA/UK, 2014 Getting the band back together for one final gig is almost never a good idea.  In the case of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, however, there’s enough ingenuity and fun to …

At age 45, it feels like writer-director Noah Baumbach is getting soft. Best known for his caustic tragicomedies like Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg, and Margot at the Wedding, he took a turn in tone for his 2012 feature Frances Ha, which starred and was co-written by Greta Gerwig. So, though the warmth of that film might surprise someone familiar with his work, that it’s a collaboration with Gerwig explains at least part of that tone. While We’re Young, though, Baumbach’s newest film which premiered at TIFF this year and made a surprise appearance at the New York Film Festival, manages to carry that affection. It’s hard to top Frances Ha, but his newest is pleasant and impressive all the same.

Once again, Noah Baumbach’s taken to contemporary twenty-something culture. With Frances Ha he painted an apt portrait of a meandering young woman struggling to identify herself in a sea of expectation and pressure. Now, the gloves are off, as Baumbach zeroes in on the terrible and vaguely infectious character traits of the Me Generation. Narcissism and pretention are the order of the day, and we’re not talking about flippantly calling your ‘frenemy’ a narcissist: actual, clinical narcissism.

Disney live-action films of the 1990s are often remembered for all the wrong reasons. It was the era of smart-mouthed kids, remakes of old TV shows (Inspector Gadget, George of the Jungle), The Mighty Ducks sequels, and other sports movies trying to recreate the success of The Mighty Ducks. Looking over the ‘90s, it is …

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Written by Steve Conrad Directed by Ben Stiller USA, 2013 Any adaptation of the iconic James Thurber short story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” would have to deviate vastly from the source, as it’s barely more than 2,000 words long. After a seemingly endless period in development hell, …

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (Dir. Ben Stiller) The trailer for Ben Stiller’s newest directorial effort is life-affirming, anthemic, and seems like a heartstring-puller in the best possible way. Trailers are often misleading. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is occasionally satisfying white-guy wish fulfillment, as if Network’s Howard Beale were in a 2-hour, beautifully …

The 51st New York Film Festival, running September 30th – October 13th, is underway and news that Ben Stiller’s ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ will make its world premiere as the festival’s Centerpiece Gala was just released. Ben Stiller has this to say about the premiere, “I am incredibly honored and excited to have THE …