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The Humbling
Based on Phillip Roth’s final novel, The Humbling tells the story of over-the-hill stage actor Simon Axler (Al Pacino) and his struggle to find his passion for life again. Near his breaking point, he finds motivation in the form of a young and lustful lesbian Pegeen Stapleford (Greta Gerwig), but as their relationship heats up Simon has a hard time keeping up with the youthful Pegeen. The Humbling is directed by Barry Levinson and also stars Dianne Wiest, Kyra Sedgwick, Dylan Baker, Charles Grodin and Nina Arianda
21 September 1969, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
28 March 1948, Kansas City, Missouri, USA
16 September 1956, Chicago, Illinois, USA
18 September 1984, New York City, New York, USA
21 April 1935, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
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.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.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.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 ...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 23, 2015
An unusually charming dark comedy about an actor teetering on the edges of reality, fantasy and career.May 22, 2016
It definitely seems like there is a thin line between method acting and insanity in The Humbling.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.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.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.