Now & Then: Micro-aggressions

 Let's check out the latest from Nicole Holofcener, along with one of her classics streaming on Netflix.

YOU HURT MY FEELINGS (A) - This smart study of a personal slight that threatens to doom a marriage is so light and agile that you might mistake it for being inconsequential. After all, Nicole Holofcener returns to her go-to gang -- upper-middle-class New Yorkers whose lives are so comfortable that they must rely on their neuroses to manufacture crises. (I previously referred to the condition as "middle-age privileged angst.")

Never underestimate Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She previously nestled into a Holofcener character (a masseuse) in "Enough Said." No matter how many guises she takes on or the level exposure a project gets, she is uniquely funny, and she has only gained gravitas in middle age. Here she plays Beth, an agonizingly insecure writer and professor who had a moderately successful memoir and now is struggling with a novel. 

Holofcener reveals her McGuffin in the second third of the film -- in a playful moment, Beth and her sister eavesdrop on their husbands who are shopping for socks, and Beth overhears her husband, Don, trash the draft of the novel that he had been praising to her face. Beth is genuinely crushed, and she quickly assumes passive-aggressive mode, which baffles her clueless husband, who himself is insecure about both his skills as a psychologist and the bags under his eyes. Tobias Menzies (Prince Philip in TV's "The Crown") gives a brilliant hang-dog performance as Don.

Holofcener's sophisticated script is a bounty for a talented cast. Owen Teague provides great millennial angst as Beth and Don's underemployed son, who is jealous of his parents' loving relationship and friendship. (He harps on them for constantly sharing food orders and showing affection.) Michaela Watkins does her sidekick thing as Beth's sister, Sarah. She and Louis-Dreyfus have fantastic scenes with Jeannie Berlin, who plays their acerbic mother, Georgia. Both Sarah, an interior decorator, and her husband, Mark (Arian Moayed), an actor, exhibit high levels of insecurities about their own foundering careers. 

Critically, David Cross and Amber Tamblyn (married in real life) play a bickering couple who sour on Don and question his ability as a couples counselor. Cross and Tamblyn riff uproariously, alternating pot shots at each other and at their hapless therapist. Other patients pass through, in small but sumptuous roles for the likes of Sarah Steele, Zach Cherry and 80-year-old Kenneth Tigar (a former "Barney Miller" regular).

There is not a misplaced comma in the screenplay, and Holofcener's execution unfolds at a leisurely pace, though it passes by so quickly that you hate to see it end. The characters are so deep and appealing that you want to spend more time with them -- especially Louis-Dreyfus, who is a marvel yet again.

FRIENDS WITH MONEY (2006) (A) - Holofcener made the depiction of friendships and their foibles seem effortless. Here she is blessed with her first A-list cast: Frances McDormand, Jennifer Aniston and Joan Cusack join Holofcener's muse, Catherine Keener, for a slice of life among mismatched pals as each one makes peace with her lot in life.

 

Aniston is wonderful as the under-achieving Olivia, who is currently cleaning houses in the L.A. area. Aniston is always a revelation, and here she skirts past pathos with her pot-smoking drifter. Keener, perhaps at her peak, is in a sexless marriage with her writing-partner husband; she feels guilty of the gaudy addition they are adding atop their fancy house. Cusack's Franny is fairly well-adjusted as the richest of the friends. McDormand's Jane has a husband seems to be stereotypically gay, but their marriage works quite well. Jane, though, is a prototype Karen with anger and judgment issues.

The plot meanders, but the film is buoyed by the combination of Holofcener's incisive dialogue and the magnetism of the actors immersing themselves into the rich roles. There really aren't writer-directors out there making perfect little movies like this consistently over the years.