Tag: Judy Greer

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Sometimes movies try so hard to be realistic they forget that they’re still movies.

The heartwarming comedy “Jeff, Who Lives at Home” has a mystic fascination with the idea that some signs that point to our destiny are almost too powerful to not be scripted.

Jeff (Jason Segel), the 30-year-old, couch-ridden stoner living with his mom (Susan Sarandon), believes in such a fate, and he thinks it’s more than coincidence he bumped into his brother Pat (Ed Helms) to help him investigate if his wife Linda (Judy Greer) is having an affair.

The film has a subtly self-aware plot structure. These characters belong in a small-scale indie movie, but they keep getting put into madcap situations worthy of something greater. Continue reading “Jeff, Who Lives at Home”

The Descendants

“The Descendants” is a complex family drama that provides lots of inner details without ever delving into them and becoming bloated

“The Descendants” is a film filled with bitterness, resentment and judgment. And yes, I would say it’s a comedy and that it’s quite lovely.

If the film’s idyllic Hawaiian setting or quirky indie comedy trailers seem deceptive, that is exactly the point. “The Descendants” is a film about appearances, and with each character there is a long lineage of Hawaiian heritage who show us that with every meeting and action, we carry along with us emotional baggage and sins of the past that skew our perception of the present.

We want to be honest about the here and now, but in others we only see the past. Sometimes what we see seems unfamiliar, and it’s tough to forgive. Continue reading “The Descendants”