Hollywood commercial movies are like unnutritious artificial chicken soup. Drinking two mouthfuls will feel blood boiled. If you continuously drink it, you will not only suffer from indigestion, but you may also suffer from loss of energy and blood. Look at those independent films again, pay attention to reality steadily, and no longer show off to cater to it, and shoot a realistic and touching, thoughtful and delicate life, just like a massage for the soul of the audience.
"Greenberg" is an American independent film, and the narrative of the character's status is particularly delicate. Although it is a comedy movie, Ben Stiller, as a comedian, is uncharacteristically. He does not assume a comedy role in it. Instead, he is a middle-aged man who is "dropped", a "loser" of life, and his performance is very restrained and sinking. Attract the hearts of the audience.
Roger Greenberg has just been discharged from the mental sanatorium. His brother Philip Greenberg invited him to Los Angeles from New York to make a dog house for his dog while his family is on vacation in Vietnam. At the same time, he is responsible for helping to look after the house. Roger can also be here. 6 weeks off during sick leave.
Looking back at Roger's past, it is a "typical" of playing a good hand sparsely. When he just graduated at the age of 27, his band had an excellent opportunity to make a record. However, after reading the standard contract terms given by the record company, he felt that it was not what he wanted. He refused the contract without discussing or discussing it. The opportunity of Feihuang Tengda passed by. After that, he went to New York and became a carpenter and a manual worker in partnership with others.
When he returned to Los Angeles, he lived in a big house with a swimming pool compared to his younger brother, and he would also open a hotel in Vietnam, and his family business would be successful; his former friends have also established a family and become parents. Also a "free man", a brave temporarily unemployed. It is impossible to pretend to be young in front of real young people. With a young man in his early 20s, he was obviously "old". At the party organized by his niece that night, there was obviously no room for him to stand on. With the Maotou boy, his age difference appeared.
The director’s description of this "dislocation" is vivid, using vertical and horizontal contrasts to highlight the incompatibility of Roger, a 40-year-old "young" person, and the "dislocation" of age and psychology in the real world. This contrast is concrete and specific. Reality, without any exaggeration, the audience is not only easy to have a sense of substitution, but also can resonate strongly. Roger's shift seems to be that his current concept of "time" is more than 10 years later than his peers. His "shift" is full of logic, and he consciously avoids it.
He doesn't like to be "controlled", he doesn't want to live in the expectations of others, and fight against social rules with his alienation. This is consciously unwilling to be swayed by secular regulations, and he does not want to be restricted by the definition of "success" by others. His "degeneration" and "dropping" in the past 13 years are autonomous, so he feels at ease. Just like since he went to New York instead of driving, he wrote complaints and complained when he was dissatisfied with social and public life? He just likes to live like this "struggling" and "clumsy" life.
He has a sensitive heart, and when it comes to noise and animal illnesses, he will turn around and write letters to complain and hope to improve. He also lived away from the group and went to New York to be a carpenter; he never went out to say hello when he came to Philip's house to see the neighbors using the swimming pool; he even voluntarily gave up driving, preferring to walk to the supermarket to buy daily food instead of driving.
But he can't help but feel regret in his heart, lamenting that youth is gone, regretting that time waits for no one, and man cannot fight against time. And the carefree, considerate Florence, the nerve-sensitive Roger is very tolerant, and never put pressure on him, she might make him brave and no longer retreat from life.
Ivan, played by Rhys Ifans, is very brilliant, with few scenes, simple lines, but a strong sense of presence. He just drove the car in a leisurely manner, sitting aside, his aura did not lose to Roger, and Roger's paranoia and irritability hit Ivan like a bullet on the cotton. The two of them complement each other perfectly. It's a pity that the team didn't make a record.
This film was shortlisted for the Golden Bear Award at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival in 2010. The film is still Noah Baumbach style, but Ben Stiller is another Ben Stiller, a living "person", and the sense of dislocation is vivid and vivid in him. In recent years, the United States has produced a number of excellent independent films, with ordinary characters, realistic themes, and delicate emotions. They no longer rely on fierce and unconventional plots to create conflicts to attract the attention of the audience, but show the authenticity of life. In 2006, "Little Sunshine" directed by husband and wife directors Jonathan Dayton and Villery Faris, it tells the story of a family of six who accompanied 7-year-old Oliver to participate in the beauty contest of "Little Sunshine". It's fun and funny. This film once set the highest selling price in the history of the Sundance Film Festival.
Maya Forbes self-written and directed in 2014, "Forever Polar Bear", tells the story of a father suffering from bipolar disorder taking care of his two daughters at home, and a mother who was forced to take on the responsibility of raising the family. The deep affection and unique father-daughter relationship will definitely make you cry and laugh.
Alex Ross Perry's "Golden Outlet" in 2018 tells the story of two seemingly happy families in Brooklyn, because the appearance of an Australian girl caused two male owners to have subtle affection for them, thus making the two families on the verge of breaking up. The relationship between the characters is handled very lightly and dexterously, and it will definitely make ripples in your heart.
"Independent films" in the United States are directed to perform self-financing, and even responsible for the screenwriting and director. They give full play to the creators’ own talents to produce films with more ideological and individual perspectives. Compared with fully catering to the market, it pursues the greatest profit. As far as commercial films are concerned, the "producer system" has been transformed. In layman's terms, it is like an "author's film" in Europe. In order to support and train new film screenwriters and film directors; support and help new feature films and documentaries to participate in American domestic film festivals and international film festivals; protect the diversity of American film culture, in 1981, under the advocacy of Robert Redford, the establishment of Africa Profitable "Sundance Institute". The institute has an annual budget of 10 million U.S. dollars, of which 35% is earned by the institute itself and 65% is donated income. This led to the "Independent Film Festival" Sundance Film Festival. The Sundance Film Festival is one of the independent film festivals that have created the most commercial miracles. However, these American independent films still do not seem to be reliant on the "storyline". The characters are not clear enough, and some chicken soup will be sprinkled from time to time. This kind of story is actually not that good, depending on which region/country is the target standard. In short, American independent films still have a lot of room for growth.
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