Date Night and Grey Dog Coffee

Just when you think you have a formula for a successful afternoon: a little comedy with familiar favorites, a cup of brew at a comfy East Village coffee shop, your senses are shocked, or possibly dulled by generic reality. Such is the case with the latest Tina Fey/Steve Carell comedy, Date Night and a recent find, Grey Dog Coffee on University Place. I can't imagine a better pairing than these two self-effacing comedians as a sedentary suburbanite couple itching for adventure and passion. However, this is less a caper comedy, than an extended Saturday Night Live sketch where a punchline seems a commercial break away. The plot: a well-intentioned albeit boring couple's night out takes a turn when they steal someone else's reservations at a posh restaurant. The someone else turns out to be a couple blackmailing a corrupt district attorney. Refreshing moments come by way of James Franco and Mila Kunis as the couple in question (hilarious timing, hipster angst) and Mark Wahlberg as a hunky security expert who aids the efforts of Fey/Carrell, though one more joke about his chiseled pecks would have pushed me over the edge. While these character anecdotes were pleasant, they came at the cost of pushing forward the narrative, which seemed to meddle and lose its way. In the midst of the movie, I lost the chase and started to consider time better spent with NBC's Thursday night line-up (Carrell's Michael Scott, Fey's Liz Lemon).

Similarly the Grey Dog Cafe in the East Village doesn't quite pull its promising weight -- cramped tables and lackluster pastry options are disguised by mood lighting and cooler-than-thou aphorisms scrawled on display cases.

With so many entertainment and snacking options in this fantastic city, best to spend your Date Night or afternoon elsewhere.

Greenberg and Breaking Upwards

Strange to pair a Hollywood factory piece with a microfinanced indie playing in one theatre in the west village, but there are definite parallels between Greenberg and Breaking Upwards. Urban couples (LA/NYC respectively) plagued by insecurities and indecision leads to a lot of "will they or won't they?" get together, stay together, overcome their personal issues to show the other they care. While the young hipster couple in Breaking Upwards is challenged by youth and inexperience, Greenberg and the object of his affections deal with aspergers and what I can only diagnose as low self-esteem.

There is a lot to like with Breaking Upwards. It seems to be teaming with passion (the film was written/directed/financed by its stars on a shoestring budget) and some fantastic performances (Julie White, Olivia Thirlby, and Andrea Martin make memorable appearances). While it isn't as polished as the standard fare, it puts forth a valiant and refreshing effort at capturing the voices of its leads. You might say The Graduate if set in the contemporary west village. Watching BU, I felt invested, not only in these characters, but in the new genre they were setting forth.

Though also backed by nuanced and real performances, Greenberg is a hard sit. Sure I believed the desperation and the outbursts, but I couldn't believe for a second that, at forty years old, Roger would make progress. This realization made the realities of Florence, his lost love interest even more bleak. She will never stand up for herself, but she will stand by someone who will never treat her properly. While BU and Greenberg are relationship movies, they highlight the most important relationship, the only one we have is with ourselves. I wish Florence's had a happier ending.