After his first date at age 15 ended with the girl making out with another man at a party, aspiring writer Lester Grimm has treated all his girlfriends with jealousy and suspicion. While dating Ramona Ray, paranoia gets the best of him when he discovers that her most recent ex is successful novelist Dashiell Frank. Lester begins attending the same group therapy sessions as Dashiell to learn about Ramona's past with him.
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I wanted to but couldn't!
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Noah Baumbach's second film, "Mr. Jealousy", is a like an amalgam of François Truffaut, Whit Stillman, and traditional Hollywood romantic comedy. I'm not a huge fan of Baumbach on the whole, but he's a fairly good filmmaker, and of the five films I've seen by him, he's never delivered a bad one. "Mr. Jealousy" is probably the weakest of the ones I've seen, but overall, it's still an above average film that welcomely deviates in many ways from the norms of the genre.Noah Baumbach's quirky sense of humor reminds me in that way of other contemporaneous American filmmakers like Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, and Alexander Payne. In fact, he co-wrote "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou" with Anderson. Without a doubt, though, the American filmmaker that Baumbach bears the most resemblance to is Whit Stillman. Of course, the presence of Chris Eigeman in both directors' films certainly adds to this resemblance, but it's more than just that. It's that idiosyncratic brand of humor that they share. It's their focus on youth on the verge of adulthood, or young adults on the verge of having to become real adults. Both filmmakers were clearly inspired by the French New Wave, and I've always said that Baumbach is the François Truffaut of modern American cinema, while Whit Stillman is the Eric Rohmer of modern American cinema.Truffaut's influence on Baumbach's cinema is immense. It's incredibly obvious, and like Brian De Palma with Alfred Hitchcock, he makes absolutely no attempt whatsoever to hide it. We can feel in Baumbach's films the very same carefree abandon that permeated most of Truffaut's work (apart from his stretch of films in the mid-'60s when he put a ridiculous amount of effort into imitating Hitchcock's style and tone — "The Soft Skin", "Fahrenheit 451", "The Bride Wore Black"). The quirky male protagonist (so often portrayed by Jean-Pierre Léaud in Truffaut's films) and his clumsy attempts at romance and intimacy will all be very familiar to anyone who knows the work of François Truffaut.The problem with a filmmaker being so heavily influenced by another filmmaker is that he's ultimately so busy imitating the source of his inspiration that he fails to develop any real, unique, individual identity as a filmmaker. He adopts someone else's vision of life, and therefore fails to develop his own vision. This, of course, is not entirely true of Baumbach, who certainly has his own identity as a filmmaker, to a certain extent. Still, I would much rather see him drop all the Truffaut emulation and start making films that are more his own. Truffaut's presence is felt so strongly in many of Baumbach's films that it can really be quite a distraction. "The Squid and the Whale" — especially its ending — was almost embarrassingly similar to "The 400 Blows", and although I think it was a very good film overall — probably the best I've seen by Baumbach — the lack of originality at times was off-putting. And then, of course, "Frances Ha" was a complete Truffaut ripoff (or we can be nicer about it and say "pastiche"). I'm not as big of a Truffaut fan as a lot of people to begin with, and so I'm even less enthused by a director who is attempting to emulate Truffaut. Nevertheless, as I've said, I think Baumbach is a quality filmmaker, and I'll never protest to watching one of his films if I haven't seen it."Mr. Jealousy" stars Eric Stolz, whose first non-television role was in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", and who had also shown up in Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" before taking on a role in Baumbach's debut film, "Kicking and Screaming". The female lead in the film is Annabella Sciorra, who I'm not very familiar with. Chris Eigeman costars, as does Peter Bogdanovich, who I love. Bogdanovich is a filmmaker (he directed the fantastic 1971 feature, "The Last Picture Show"), a film scholar, and a bit of an actor. Bogdanovich has taken a shine to Noah Baumbach. I'm not sure why he's picked Baumbach out of the bunch, but he's played roles in several of his films, and seems to serve as a somewhat of a mentor to him, from what I can tell. He had high praise for "Frances Ha", as I recall, and seems to be a big fan of Baumbach's work in general.The plot of "Mr. Jealousy" revolves around the relationship between a jealous man (played by Eric Stolz) and a "tarty" female (played by Annabella Sciorra) with a long list of past lovers. The film reminded me a bit of "Love & Sex", released three years later, although I think "Mr. Jealousy" is without question a better film. Both films start off with flashbacks to youthful romantic mishaps that traumatized the protagonist and led to his or her current problems with romance. "Mr. Jealousy" also reminded me somewhat of Payne's film school thesis film, "The Passion of Martin". Baumbach's film progresses with a plot line that is a bit far-fetched at times, but it's fairly entertaining all the way through, the performances are solid, and it's basically an enjoyable film.I'll continue to look for a little more substance and thematic depth from Baumbach than I've found in films like "Mr. Jealousy" or "Frances Ha" — "The Squid and the Whale" is probably closer to what I'd like to see from him. "Mr. Jealousy" plays very much like a standard romantic comedy at times, and yet, at other times, it achieves a new, fresh take on the genre and, for those who know Baumbach well enough, his hallmarks will certainly be recognizable. For fans of his films, "Mr. Jealousy" will probably be satisfactory at the very worst. On the other hand, for those who don't care for Baumbach, there's probably nothing here that's going to change your mind.RATING: 6.33 out of 10 stars
If you haven't seen this film yet, just wait a few minutes until IFC shows it again. They seem to like it there.And me, I like it too. I find it to be a really smart, romantic and bittersweet film with a lot of funny moments and genuinely good acting. There is a certain pretentiousness, but it is self-effacing. Eigeman, for instance does a turn on his pompous shtick, adding subtle elements that make him a level-9 fop. Stoltz and Sciorra are perfect together. Jacott is hilarious in just about every scene he's in, particularly his wedding vows.I like movies where the central conceit of the movie does not become the entire movie. Jealousy is a theme in Stoltz's character, but it is not all of what drives him, which I guess is why some people have a problem with the title. Similarly, the plot device of invading someone's therapy group would be used as an entire basis for farce in a less subtle director's hands. Here it is merely another hilarious bit of detail off of which branch many smaller truths.For as much as IFC shows this, I can't stop watching it any time I begin.
A film about relations; you may think: Oh no not an another one, not a Woody Allen remake. Wrong, this is a screwball comedy like the films with Cary Grant en Katherine Hepburn. Makes group therapy slightly ridiculous. Stoltz is great as the jealous lover, obsessed with the past of his present girlfriend.
This film caught me by surprise on cable one night, and I went out and rented it again to show my friends. Eric Stoltz and Annabella Sciorra look gorgeous and have a wonderful chemistry together, and Chris Eigeman (from 'Metropolitan' and 'Barcelona') is the perfect Brett Easton Ellis-esque foil. It's rare to find a funny film about romantic jealousy, but this is it. Carlos Jacott just about steals the film with his impersonation of a British gentleman, and the rest of the cast is superb. The cinematography is sumptuous and the music is perfect. A great date movie..