When dedicating a significant portion of your day to a double-feature, you might want to plan on films that aesthetically complement each other. Or maybe just strategize your time economically, sneaking into the second film just a few minutes after the first one ends. Ideally, you can just go see two films that satisfy two sides of your movie-loving brain and end up with all of the above. In this case, the real joy was in the joyous surprise of the similarities between my choice of double-feature on March 26th, 2010: Greenberg and Hot Tub Time Machine. Both films opened on the day in question, and both films' stories centered around now-grown-up Generation X'ers who are dissatisfied with what they've done with their lives, now that they're 40 (ish) - something that this viewer is always pondering. One film is a full immersion into that sad-sack of a mind, while the other is pure escapist fun. Hence, the hot tub.
Greenberg's "hero," or in this case, main curmudgeon, is a dedicated cynic, whose previous stint in a mental institution is never fully explained - but, one can guess that something/somebody steered him so wrong, that his view of the world is permanently filtered through a black window of disgust. And, in this reviewers opinion, that something/somebody is him.
Roger Greenberg (played by the usually comedic Ben Stiller) is the quintessential distrustful artist from the 90's, whose insistence on staying cool and independent with his music robbed him and his best friend's a recording contract with a major label. The attitude of "the man is gonna just bring us down" resulted in the band's dissolution, and his friends taking regular jobs, quitting music, and becoming exactly what they probably never imagined - domesticated. Greenberg went the complete opposite route and maintained his distrust of "the man" - which, in effect, stunted his growth and fueled his present-day disgust with the world and his not having any sort of root in it.
As would happen to anybody who refuses to change to Greenberg's extent, the world passes him by, and each passing day of the past becoming more, well, past, just gets more and more frustrating - to the point where he just can't relate with anybody about anything. "Youth is wasted on the young," says Greenberg's friend, Ian, as he patiently sips drinks with Stiller's character. Greenberg responds with a desperation to convince himself that it's ok that he's done nothing with his life: "Life is wasted on... people."
Ben Stiller's face is constantly tense, eyeballs batting back and forth, with a tense and frozen shrug of a posture, as if he's waiting for more reasons to hate himself and the world around him. He does this so well, that the one time he actually relaxes and breathes in this film is when he's at the breaking point and just needs to talk to someone - or else go insane again. - in this case, it would be with Florence, played with an unmatched beautiful naturalness by Greta Gerwig. He calls her on the phone, gets her voice mail; and seemingly in one breath, unloads his life story. And, like very few films that are as character-driven as this, you can see his body and face change, along with his mind, to the point where he actually emotes something positive to the one person that doesn't share his past and could actually give him some perspective. This monologue was such a relief to this viewer, that I felt my own body let go along with Greenberg's. All from something seemingly simple to most people, but not to those that feel left behind and totally lost. To create a film this visceral through nothing but human emotions is rare in American cinema. To see this story told - to see a character-driven story like this be told, emotionally reminiscent of films like Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces, is simply beautiful.
Now, don't get me wrong - Hot Tub Time Machine is NOTHING like this film - it's similarities to Greenberg are simplified as plot points. However, it, too deals with that same generation and three particular characters' unhappiness of letting their earlier lives give way to boring domesticity, with dead-end jobs and broken relationships. Whereas Roger Greenberg's insistence of not adapting to a changing world left him stunted, Hot Tub's characters gave up their dreams as youths in the late 80's after the pressure of "get a job, start a family" set in. And their unhappiness has led them to a try and reclaim their wild youth by going back to their old party grounds, Kodiak Valley - fulfilling the much-used 80's plot device, the ski slope sex romp. But, upon arrival, they've found that the resort has gone the way of their dreadful lives.
Thank god their hotel room has a Hot Tub Time Machine! Well, they find out it's a Time Machine after a night of partying in the tub and spilling their energy drinks into the tub's Back To The Future-like temperature controls, which time-warps them back to 1986. If the film wasn't called Hot Tub Time Machine, I would complain about the randomness of this plot device - what else would you expect?
Here is where they discover the obvious: if you knew then what you know now, your life would come out perfectly! The throwback to jokes, fashion, music, and movies of the 80's ensue. The plot is predictable and riddled with holes (the 4th character, a hilarious Clark Duke, goes back in time with them, but somehow he's still alive in 1986, one year before he was born) - but, with a film title like Hot Tub Time Machine, you had better not hope for a character-driven story with intelligent dialogue like Greenberg.
But that's why HTTM rocks. It embraces the wackiness of the title and it knows what it is. It's a movie told with the same sensibilities that drove the better teen-sex flicks of the 80's, but from the point of view of folks that grew up in that time that can now look back and toy with the idea of "what if we did things differently? What if we followed our dreams, rather than give in to the Man?" And, while it's far from perfect, it hilariously succeeds in its modest goal - telling the story of 3 dudes that wished their lives turned out differently and are able to do so, all the while doing those things that we all would do if this actually happened. Betting on sports events, knowing the results of all the games. Hooking up with somebody that excites you, because you know your girlfriend at the time is going to dump you. And having one more chance to start off your music career with a song that hasn't even come out yet. This film delivers the typical sex-romp jokes that you would expect, but it's hard not to full-on root for these guys, as they are doing things that you would love to do if given the chance. Well, if you had access to a Hot Tub Time Machine, that is.
There is probably a middle ground between driven insane by a refusal to adapt to a changing world, and taking the Americanized pre-destined route of job and family. Neither Greenberg nor HTTM tries to find such ground; they merely follow folks that are frustrated by the polar opposite paths that they took - one very real and naturalistic, and one very goofy and outlandish. If you're somebody in your late-30's who is wondering where the hell your life went, Greenberg will press a lot of buttons - hard and painfully. But, you'll hopefully leave the theater trying to figure out if it's not too late to ease up on the cynicism that's keeping your down. Or, if you just want to escape your existential dread, and enjoy the impossibility of making it all better through time travel, take a dip in the hot tub.
Greenberg: 5.5/6
Hot Tub Time Machine: 4/6
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