Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia Schrebnick (Naomi Watts) are a childless married couple in their 40s. He's a documentarian struggling to complete his movie for the last 10 years. She's unsatisfied working for her famed-documentarian father Leslie Breitbart (Charles Grodin). Their friends are having babies but they had tried and failed themselves. Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby Massey (Amanda Seyfried) are a young hip couple who approaches Josh in his class. Soon, the Schrebnicks are pulled into their world.
I love the sharp jabs launched at Josh's expense. That may annoy some people who are uncomfortable with the awkward truths being poked at. All four leads are doing amazing work. Adam Driver is the big difference. Noah Baumbach is at his sharpest up to this date. It's hilarious that he does throw-up humor in this.
While We're Young
2014
Action / Comedy / Drama / Mystery
While We're Young
2014
Action / Comedy / Drama / Mystery
Plot summary
Josh Srebnick is 44. He is married to Cornelia, 43, the daughter of Leslie Breitbart, a respected documentary filmmaker. The couple lives comfortably in New York Village and gives the image of happiness. But things are not so rosy as they look: on a personal level, their relationships have been cooling down while they suffer from not having children. On a professional plane, things have deteriorated as well. Josh, who is also a documentary filmmaker like his father-in-law, has lost inspiration: he has been grappling with his last movie for eight years now without being able to complete it. To be true, Josh goes nowhere and his marriage is on the rocks. Things start changing when Josh and Cornelia meet another married pair: Jamie and Darby, a generation younger, express their admiration for Josh (Jamie wishing to become a documentary filmmaker himself). Plus, they are much cooler, smarter and more uninhibited than the two forty-odds. Could they help Josh and Cornelia to revive their couple? Could they give Josh an extra boost of energy to make a fresh start in his art?
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brilliant and great Adam Driver
Another decent Baumbach film
"While We're Young" is the newest movie by Academy Award nominated writer and director Noah Baumbach. It's the second film I have seen from him after the absolutely amazing "Frances Ha". And even if it's not as good as that one, I think "While We're Young" is still worth a watch. It runs for pretty much exactly 90 minutes without credits and takes us into the world of documentary filmmakers. Baumbach unites with Ben Stiller after "Greenberg" again. I have not seen that one, so no elaboration on more possible parallels. Stiller stars alongside Naomi Watts, Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver (also in "Frances Ha", Emmy nominee for "Girls" and bound for stardom with the new "Star Wars" film). The story is basically that a young couple becoming friends with an older couple brings completely new pep into the lives of the older couple. But it's not all that great. Sometimes reality is not so real anymore. Another important aspect of this movie is the unfulfilled wish by Stiller's and Watts' character of becoming parents.
Even if I enjoyed this one, I have to say something was missing for me to be really impressed by it. It's difficult to exactly point out what. The acting was good by everybody in here, the script was realistic and all other components somehow worked as well. Yet I felt that this film would really only be totally worth the watch for (documentary) filmmakers because of the connection they can form with the central characters. Apart from that, I liked some of the music in here again as well. this is definitely one of Baumbach's biggest strengths. It's an interesting evaluation of a certain group of people, but it's much more specific than "Frances Ha", a title character that probably far more people can really connect with. Good effort I must say, but I hope that Baumbach's next works can also make an impact on the emotional level which this one didn't really do for me.
Look back in bemusement
Writer and director Noah Baumbach deals with what is liked to be middle aged in a youth obsessed society that is always looking for the next big young hotshot.
Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts are Josh and Cornelia in this black tinged comedy. They are fortysomethings in New York. Their friends have kids, they have remained child free but age is catching up with them.
Josh is a documentary film maker who made a successful film early in his career but is stuck in a project that is unwieldy and he is never likely to finish. Cornelia's father is a legendary film producer (Charles Grodin) who gives advice to to Josh about his documentary but Josh is unwilling to take it.
A young couple Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) endear themselves to Josh and Cornelia who find themselves rejuvenated with the company of younger people and try crazy and hip things.
Jamie has aspirations to be a documentary film-maker as well, Josh mentors him but soon discovers that Jamie has a cavalier approach to ethical film making and that their mutual friendship was more than just accidental and that Josh and Cornelia have been used for their connections.
The film is sporadically amusing but is never involving, the four leads give good performances, Driver and Seyfried are charming and yet behind the facade also manipulative and self serving. It is great to see Grodin having a meaty cameo who in the end is just as deceptive and shallow as Jamie when it comes to documentary ethics.