The Humbling
This film explores the story of actor Simon Axler (Al Pacino) who outperforms his struggles as he faces more challenge and tries to find his passion for life again. In those moments, he finds a real motivation through a lively young man, Pegeen Stapleford (Greta Gerwig). With that relationship growing, Simon will have a hard time keeping up with Pegeen over time.
12 November 1931, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
3 June 1985, Brooklyn, New York, USA
5 January 1965, San Francisco, California, USA
19 August 1965, New York City, New York, USA
2 October 1962, Berkeley, California, USA
7 October 1959, Syracuse, New York, USA
21 September 1969, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
21 April 1935, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
4 August 1983, Sacramento, California, USA
14 May 1956, Hollywood, California, USA
5 August 1980, New York, USA
28 March 1948, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
December 31, 2015
It's a mopey, silly situation, whose only tension comes from our perpetual fear that Levinson is about to make us watch a somber drama copulating with a farce.December 18, 2015
This is really two stories: one about an old guy trying to prove he's still got it sexually speaking, and the other about an artist losing a grip on his craft. The latter plot point is decent. The former? Yuck.April 28, 2015
A messy movie but also a thrilling one, grappling with diminished talents and vanishing virility in brutally honest ways that show up the similarly-themed Birdman as a cheap parlor trick.May 22, 2016
It definitely seems like there is a thin line between method acting and insanity in The Humbling.January 23, 2015
An unusually charming dark comedy about an actor teetering on the edges of reality, fantasy and career.May 30, 2016
In the end, 'The Humbling' is one of those movies where the "plot" is far less interesting than what the movie is "about" - and in this case, it's about acting in general and Al Pacino in particular.January 22, 2015
The movie is too shrewd to qualify as a jeremiad, but underneath the comedy are boiling undercurrents of anger and despair.January 26, 2015
"The Humbling" reveals an ominous gulf between the director and his theme ...March 15, 2016
A melancholic alternation of bitter and comedic sketches, all resolutely low-key and wildly uneven.January 23, 2015
Pacino gives a refreshingly quiet and understated performance with poignant moments of vulnerability. It is the most consistent factor in a film that is frustratingly inconsistent.January 22, 2015
If you liked Birdman, you also might like seeing Al Pacino playing a delusional, indeed hallucinatory, actor trying to save his soul and his onstage career in the sort-of-comedy The Humbling. Or you might not.January 29, 2015
This is Pacino's best film performance in years. In playing an actor who has lost the art of fooling himself, he reveals with mordant wit the terrors of diminished capacity. To watch him do it is a master class.