NY Times spotlights Ben Stiller as Greenberg

As Greenberg gets set to hit theaters in the next few weeks, critics and writers are looking at the new side of Ben Stiller shown in this touching character study by Noah Baumbach. Dennis Lim in a recent piece in the New York Times called  "Mortification Man" considers the various elements that, not only connects this new character to Stiller’s previous comedy triumphs, but also threads a bond between Baumbach’s and Stiller’s comedic styles. Lim writes:

Mr. Baumbach’s brand of humor is more analytical than Mr. Stiller’s, but both men specialize in a comedy of discomfort and mortification. You can imagine the short-fused Roger carrying the psychic burden of Mr. Stiller’s other roles as a perennial punching bag. Somewhere between good sports and masochists, his characters always get the girl but must first endure a series of indignities: zipper and hair-gel debacles in There’s Something About Mary, polygraph testing in Meet the Parents, gastrointestinal flare-ups in Along Came Polly.