Jesse Eisenberg, C or D?

The NY Times did their Whatcha Readin' feature w/ him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/books/review/jesse-eisenberg-by-the-book.html

What are your favorite books about acting?

I love David Mamet’s “True and False,” even though it is considered “controversial” amongst actors (try pulling out a copy at Sardi’s), and I really liked Uta Hagen’s book “Respect for Acting,” which offered me the best acting advice: If you have to act stoned, imagine a helium balloon inflating inside your skull. In all of my plays, my characters spend much of the show high, so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this.

Has a lot going on: acting, writing plays, this:

http://media.sunherald.com/smedia/2015/09/08/11/48/708-Pq0f3.AuSt.55.jpeg

ffs

So he's the bastard child of James Franco and Michael Cera?

lazy

don't think JF has written any plays (that have gotten staged off-Bway anyhoo)

@NickPinkerton
More like Now I Won't See That 2, amIrite?

I couldn't get through that American ultra one w k-stew, which I thought would be fun :|

i cannot bleeeeve that Now You See Me thing got a sequel

how is this not called now you see me again

American Ultra was tone-deaf, stupid violence relieved by moments of emo shit from umsympathetic cunts

I thought Eisenburg in 'End of the Tour' was very much like his Zuckerburg portrayal, until the end of the film when the real Lipsky is shown and, well, he was a lot like Eisenberg's Zuck too

#whiteguys

something kind of panama-papers-esque abt the cast posters for now you see me ii, like they are just straightforwardly indexing celebrity avarice

American Ultra was tone-deaf, stupid violence relieved by moments of emo shit from unsympathetic cunts

― Daithi Bowsie (darraghmac), Wednesday, May 25, 2016 2:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

awful movie. Eisenberg is so irritating - he plays a slight variation on Zuckerberg in every movie. Louder Than Bombs was also terrible.

can't believe i only just saw Adventureland. totally off the radar in the Uk but is now popping up everywhere in those 'under rated movies to see' type lists. it's *excellent* fun.

i cannot bleeeeve that Now You See Me thing got a sequel

The first one, not the sequel.

Also putting this here for further reference, from Hurting2 on Worst Big Budget Hollywood Movies of All Time--Nominate Three

Now You See Me was on HBO last night -- good LORD what a hot pile of garbage! How did they get such a decent cast to do such a horrendous film?

I watched that on a plane and rather enjoyed it in a turn your brain off way.

― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Sunday, February 23, 2014 12:59 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It seems like an airplane kind of film. The plot was on the level of a saturday morning cartoon.

Was reminded today that I used to get The Education of Charlie Banks (w/Eisenberg), Charlie Bartlett (w/Yelchin) (RIP), and Rocket Science (w/some dude and a pre-glam Anna Kendrick) mixed up all the time.

Free Samples (four years old--he's not the lead) isn't bad. I liked all the performances (Tippi Hedren's really good); could have used a better soundtrack.

feel like this guy is bad

might just be his unlikeability tho idk

He's limited, for sure--all his mannerisms were in place as early as The Squid and the Whale. I tend to like him anyway.

His New Yorker comedy bits are pretty funny, iirc.

He's good in "Night Moves"

Probably already said this upthread but imo the most loathsome & repellent actor working today, tied with Oscar Isaac. It's funny though, the first performances I saw by both of them (Squid and the Whale, Inside Llewyn Davis) were fantastic. Maybe those roles just suited the qualities that bug me now - Eisenberg's creepy/pedantic/neurotic nerd thing, and Isaac's utter lack of charisma.

Not quite as awful as Michael Cera.

I thought everyone liked Oscar Isaac, can't make sense of the hate there.

yeah, yr bananas fb

Eisenberg is fine w/in his range, when the character isn't too annoying (eg Zuckerberg)

His New Yorker comedy bits are pretty funny, iirc.

perhaps he's a golem under construction by Woody Allen

Does flappy bird have any correct opinions

(Oscar Isaac is great)

He's good in "Night Moves"

Yes, a much better sinister slant on that thing he does than the Snyder monstrosity (I'd imagine - never gonna watch it)

I gotta check out Night Moves, I absolutely loved Certain Women and feel like I need to see everything by Kelly Reichardt now (including Meek's Cutoff, which I hated at the time).

I just feel like Eisenberg has a really limited range, and whenever he ventures out of that, he seems way out of his depth (awful movie, but American Ultra is a good example of this). He's great when he's playing envious cretins like Lipsky in the DFW movie though. I don't find him as repellent as Isaac - I just couldn't stand him in A Most Violent Year (bad Corleone cosplay) and Ex Machina (asshole asshole asshole). I keep an open mind though because I loved Llewyn Davis.

re: Oscar Isaac, maybe try Show Me a Hero if yr not too sick of David Simon?

Word, I'll check that out, haven't kept up with him post-Wire but I love David Simon...

So you didnt think he did a good enough job playing an asshole in ex machina?

Or played it so well you were convinced that he must be an asshole in real life too.

The thing I liked about him in Llewyn Davis was that he was constantly failing and being shitted on by the universe. In all these other movies, he's an asshole and in more of a position of power, even though he ends up dead in Ex Machina. every time i see him i'm just like "this prick."

now you see me is on its actually hilarious on many levels some intentional

he looks like a musketeer in this movie its quite something

and i mean ruffalo, harrelson, this is fun

certainly the best movie caine and freeman have both been in

whaaaaaat

took ye long enough

C: Zombieland
D: Playing an incel Lex Luthor

he's a big Ween fan apparently, gotta love him

took ye long enough

― ɪmˈpəʊzɪŋ (darraghmac), Monday, February 18, 2019 1:00 AM (seventeen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

your post was like some kind of goat-ear horn blast that calls out to cinephiles within a 200-mile radius.

DUD

the really fun part is wondering whether it’s a Batman movie or a Zach Braff effort that Morbs is outraged on behalf of

. . .

There are no words pic.twitter.com/LXaVkWaH7m

— Jesse Hawken (@jessehawken) January 21, 2020

The Social Mimework

now you mi me

Army of Shaddups

Saw a trailer tonight for his first film as a director.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbgJPKFxHXI

Pretty much exactly what you'd expect. I will see it and hope for the best.

Saw When You Finish Saving the World tonight. I'd been looking forward to it: one, I love Eisenberg in The Squid and the Whale and The Social Network (and thought he was pretty good in two or three other films); two, it looked like something I'd like. I was hoping for something along the lines of Jonah Hill's Mid90s.

Found Finn Wolfhard as the son intensely unlikeable right from the start (realizing he was largely meant to be). The surprise was that by about the halfway mark, I started to dislike Julianne Moore's mom almost as much. So, intentional or otherwise, just watching the two of them wasn't pleasant, even exhausting at times. It all coalesces right at the end, though, with a nice final shot and--I hadn't been thinking about it through the film--a title that, if you were to sum everything up in a sentence or two, makes perfect sense. Getting there, quite a mess. Eisenberg wrote the film, too, so I assume there's a large autobiographical component. There's enough there that I hope he gets a second chance.

(Wolfhard's live-streaming reminded me of Eighth Grade, which I saw around the same time as Mid90s; initially liked Hill's film better, but after watching both a second time they pulled about even.)

I really enjoyed A Real Pain, feels anachronistic to have a low-key movie about some humans in theaters in 2024. Plenty of grade A Kieran Culkin.

Culkin is first-rate: my favorite male performance of the year (I know that character). And it's a LEAD performance, not supporting.

True on both counts.

Slightly unremarked on but maybe I just haven't noticed: while the discussion around The Zone of Interest absolutely had Gaza and what's resulted as unintentional framing, both this and The Brutalist are further examples of that context implicitly playing out by default. (All three films were finished shooting before last October.)

The trailer for A Real Pain has annoyed me every time I've seen it -- maybe it's just the Spoon song, but I get big mid-2000s indie dramedy vibes. But I'll probably still see the movie.

Thankfully the film has all Chopin piano music as the soundtrack (tbh I didn't know he was Polish), would have been a drag if it had been '00s indie rock.

Sometimes the soundtrack's too much imo.

And yeah Ned, that was of course looming in the background, I felt like it was at least obliquely acknowledged in the conversation about being numb to current suffering in the world, and around the Rwandan character. Very obliquely, perhaps, but still. Also helped that it was so focused as a character piece.

The trailer for A Real Pain has annoyed me every time I've seen it -- maybe it's just the Spoon song, but I get big mid-2000s indie dramedy vibes. But I'll probably still see the movie.

― jaymc, Thursday, 5 December 2024 11:59 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

trailer was terrible but thankfully not at all representative of the movie (which i loved)

trailer got me hyped for a 2000s whiteboy crisis drama

i watched 'manodrome', odd incel movie, not great... somewhat surprised eisenberg wanted to be in this, tho his performance -- mannerisms, character styling strongly reminded me of brad renfro in 'bully', i really wonder if that was on purpose or just my conflating

I did end up seeing and liking A Real Pain.

Really disliked this but I kind of think maybe I'm an asshole for feeling so

Like it seemed the premise of the film relies on Benji actually being a good person somewhere under all the muck?... or that he has any desirable attributes at all. I found none of his kookiness charming, and considering said kookiness is where alot of the comedy of this film resided (i assume?).... yeah. The dinner seen was great, but it didn't feel earned.

"Bye David" from the tour guide was hilarious though.

I'm the married man at the tour dinner sorry folks.

*scene

I didn't think he was charming or likable either, hence why the film felt unusually adult for an American project.

Him not being charming or likeable isn't a fault of the film. The fault lies in the voice of the author coming out multiple times to say that he is. There was a didactic tone in the final 1/3rd on that point. I couldn't gel with it

It didn't bother me, in part because Eisenberg's script and directing (and Culkin's performance) complexify the relationship. Like I wrote last month, I've had relatives like Benji.

The fact that this extremely sad and unlikeable man was constantly played of for laughs made this feel childish, not adult. I do have sympathy for Benji, I just think creating a comedy bases on his pathological cries for help is just bad humour?

This being Culkin's first role after succession, where he fundamentally plays the same character probably didn't help.... I don't deny it's a good performance, but it's the same performance so it just felt stale.

Sorry to hear Alfred. And thankfully you're no David

Ha, I haven't watched a single frame of Succession, though I've seen Culkin in other roles.

I liked this. I didn't love it and wasn't sure how I felt about the very final scene, but as a character study I did find it interesting and well acted.

I still haven't decided whether I like Eisenberg as an actor and enjoy watching him on screen. I did like this movie, despite misgivings (ie, as above: was Benji as charming as we were meant to think). I give it 3.5 out of 5.

benji rules

I just don't worry (anymore) about likability or the director's attitude towards the likability of the characters. I'm watching fiction.

I need to work out how I feel about this. I liked the (relatively) minor nature of the character study and of course Culkin is great but I watched a Kelly Reichardt film last night, where minor is allowed to be just that, and is all the more powerful it. I know you said in your review Alfred that this wasn't a grand tour, but why this setting at all? If it was to magnify the aspects of Culkin's neurodiversity for comic effect then I guess I see the purpose, but other than that?

I guess as it settles it will be the character portrait that endures and that's probably the point.

Weirdly, speaking of Reichardt, the ending made me think of Old Joy - someone adrift, uncertain of their future. I

Ooh, good analogy.

I pressed submit before I meant to: my version is that I've taught (and loved) kids like Benji. I'm not sure I've seen them on screen like that before.

yeah, agreed

Weirdly, speaking of Reichardt, the ending made me think of Old Joy - someone adrift, uncertain of their future.

The ending is also very Withnail and I in its emotional tone

Now you're seen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E3lMRx7HRQ

They took notes for the misnaming of the first sequel.