Instant Favorite.

hyped garbage

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

With having heard about Greta Gerwig for the first time a few years ago,in connection to being the "queen" of the Mumblecore genre,I was pleasantly surprised to recently receive 2 Gerwig Mumblecore titles from a friend,which led to me getting ready to see the "Mumblecore queen" in action for the first time.The plot:As her 30th birthday appears on the horizon,29 year old Lola begins to feel that her dream life is about to become a reality,when Lola's first (and only) boyfriend Luke proposes to her.Getting prepared for her big day,Lola is stopped from making her dream a reality,due to Luke telling Lola that he needs some "space" between him and herself just 3 weeks before the wedding.Surrounding her self with loyal friends Henry and Alice,Lola begins attempting to move the painful feeling which Luke has left behind,by preparing to experience life as a single for the first time ever.View on the film:For the screenplay of the film,co-writer's Daryl Wein (who also directs) and Zoe Lister Jones (who also gives a strong performance as Lola's walking on eggshells friend Alice) takes a refreshing approach in avoiding the traditional boy-meets-girl route,by making Lola's "dream ending" one that crumbles apart within the first 10 minutes of the film,which leads to Jones and Wein instead showing Lola trying to build a good,but realistic single life for herself.Making sure that Lola's transition from being engaged to newly single is one that never becomes too downbeat,Wein and Jones fill the movie with whip-smart dialogue,which along with giving the film a real snappy pace also allows for the close knitted relationship between Lola and her friends to be fully shown.Along with the sharp dialogue,Wein and Jones also show that they are not afraid to make their lead character occasionally look a bit stupid,with some of the best scenes in the film showing Lola go on some less than successful dates for the first time.Backed by Daryl Wein's smooth directing,which keeps Lola's feet firmly on the ground,whilst also showing a stylish eye for cut-aways that reveal the nightmare that Lola sees her future as being,the beautiful Greta Gerwig gives an excellent performance which carefully makes sure the films comedic moments always stay rooted to Lola's struggle of living a single life,and also shows Lola having some serious doubts on what direction her life should take.Joining Gerwig,Bill Pullman gives a fun,mini performance as Lola's dad Lenny,which is partly helped by Gerwig and Pullman having a slight resemblance to each other,whilst Hamish Linklater gives a terrific performance as Lola's loyal friend Henry,with Linklater showing what can happen when the wires of friendship unexpectedly cross.

I can't complain about the camera work or the acting. While I didn't particularly enjoy them, nothing really struck me as bad in those departments.The characters premise seemed to be one of emotional immaturity (whether prevalent or circumstantial), and with that in mind at least all behaved in understandable manners. The problem is: I don't quite get why this was made into a movie. It was a pain to watch all the self-destructive behavior (most of it on the main characters side). It's a film about the usual average drama that happens in real life and no mitigating qualities to it. I tried to come up with reasons why anyone would want to see this movie, I could not come up with a reason.

This movie stinks on ice. Don't even bother. Set in NYC, Lola (Greta Gerwig) discovers on her 29th birthday her life will turn upside down. When her fiancé Luke (Joel Kinnaman) calls off their wedding three weeks before the ceremony, she is bereft. Her parents (the sole bright spot in the movie is Debra Winger and Bill Pullman as doped-out hippies) are sympathetic, as is her friend Alice (Zoe Lister Jones) well as her fiancé's best friend Henry (Hamish Linklater, who is much, much better in "Battleship"). The self-obsessed Lola might as well be a tornado. She leaves devastation in her wake with everyone she knows. When she winds up alone, she must reassess everything and try to start over as she turns 30. There is a rambling plot, goes nowhere and does nothing. Truly, don't bother with this movie. I am amazed it even got made. It's that bad.

I suppose you need to be in a New York state of mind to enjoy "Lola Versus," but, Phillistine that I am, I just could not pull it off. I also know exactly what many of the smug, self-styled intellectual reviewers are going to write and say about this film. That it's smart, quirky, snappy, gritty, real and funny.Don't believe any of that.Once again, I know I will be in the minority opinion, but to this scribbler, it's nothing but a series of unrelated sentences that seeks to substitute for a coherent script; a junk drawer full of supposedly wry and witty bon mots desperately in search of a plot, written by someone with Attention Deficit Disorder. It seemingly wants to be as clever as "Juno," but does not want to work for it. Of course, it's handicapped because it has neither the intelligence, charm or talent featured in that film. In fact, it's not even a low-rent "500 Days Of Summer," the next picture on the "Will-I-ever-find-true-love-again" bandwagon."Lola Versus" is the follow-up to "Breaking Upwards" from writer/director team Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister-Jones, where the filmmakers attempted to use conventional romcom figures of speech to jump-start conversations that ultimately went nowhere. This goes twice as much for Wein's latest release.He isn't given much to work with, however. In "Lola," we get actors such as Greta Gerwig ("No Strings Attached"), Joel Kinnaman ("Safe House," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"), Hamish Linklater ("Battleship"), Lister-Jones ("The Other Guys," "Salt") and Ebon Moss-Bachrach ("The Lake House," Higher Ground").Oh sure, we also see veteran Bill Pullman (whose last significant work was "Rio Sex Comedy") and Academy Award-nominated (for "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Terms of Endearment") actress, Debra Winger; both are wasted, though, as a terminally high father and nagging mother, respectively.Here, Gerwig plays the eponymous character, who lives in New York and has one of those New York lives that exist only in movies like this. She lives in a perfect, rent-controlled apartment and is engaged to uber stud, Luke (Kinnaman). It seems to be a match made in Heaven, until a chronic case of cold feet causes him to dump her three weeks before the wedding.This can happen. I personally know of a situation similar, but no one is going to put THAT story up on the big screen. Lola takes it hard - very hard. She sleeps for what seems like months (only waking to eat a few potato chips and wallow in self-pity, much like the audience). Later, her friend, Alice (Jones), tries to console her by taking her to singles bars and getting her plastered at private parties.Lola pays her back by sleeping with Alice's on-again, off-again boyfriend, Henry (Linklater), who plays in the world's lamest band. Their relationship begins with an innocent sleep-but-don't-touch thing, but soon devolves into a full-blown affair.And, since Gerwig's character is a 29-year old New Yorker, she is shallow, annoying, promiscuous and completely self-absorbed. She's also a pothead and an alcoholic, to boot. Plus, not since Kristin Wiig's embarrassing "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" breakdown in "Bridesmaids," do we get a female that goes Hollywood mental at just the wrong time (just because she sees Nick talking to another girl).All of this while trying to get her life back on track. However, she falls back into her old habits by cheating on her rebound guy with Nick Oyster (Moss-Bachrach), a well-endowed fish salesman (get it?). Lola has sex with him, then complains because he's bothers her, which is certainly the pot calling the kettle black here.Finally, Nick, seeing the error of his ways comes back into her life, and, of course, Lola forgives him and - gasp - has sex with him (how novel, a male character she sleeps with). In fact, she has baseless, passionless, meaningless intercourse so many times, it frankly becomes as irritating as Gerwig's empty, one-note performance.It's also very hard to feel sorry for someone who constantly blubbers because she cannot find love, yet has a perfect face and body, a full support group and seemingly beds every man in the Bronx. We all have our troubles and few tears are going to be wasted on her situation.Lister-Jones, who is equally bothersome most of the time, although a bit less self-centered as Lola, is probably the best thing about this movie (and that is certainly not saying very much). It's sad though, that while she steals every scene she's in, it's all petty larceny in the end. None of the other characters even approach empathy, chemistry or believability.All the while, the writing tandem attempts a viewer connection by name-dropping such entities as Facebook, match.com and Yelp!, but they spoil everything by practically waving their hands about frantically and shouting, "Hey! We're smarter than all of you! This movie is what life, love and finally growing up is really all about!" As previously written, don't believe that for a minute.