WHILE WE’RE YOUNG – The Review

WHILE WE’RE YOUNG is the latest film from writer/director Noah Baumbach (THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, GREENBERG, FRANCES HA). Like his previous work, it is a sharply written mix of comic moments and relatable themes – a Gen Xers vs Hipsters comedy that touches on career crisis, missed opportunities, the challenges of marriage, and the middle-age soul-searching that seems to coincide with the onset of back trouble and arthritis. It’s an excellent, smart comedy and is highly recommended.

Ben Stiller stars in WHILE WE’RE YOUNG as Josh Srebnick, a 44-year old filmmaker who’s been toiling away for a decade on his documentary, one structured around Ira Mandelstam (Peter Yarrow), an elderly intellectual. It’s a follow-up to Josh’s first film, a critical success many years earlier. Expected funding has not materialized, he’s unable to pay his patient editor (Matthew Maher), and he is loath to ask his father -in-law, legendary documentary filmmaker Leslie Breitbart (Charles Grodin) about to be honored by Lincoln Center, for help. Josh’s wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) is a producer for her father’s films. The couple has tried for years to have a baby but suffered a string of miscarriages. Their best friends (Maria Dizia and Adam Horovitz) are caught up in the thrills of new parenthood, leaving Josh and Cornelia feeling unconnected with them and annoyed by their embrace of the “baby cult” and constant suggestions that having a baby is too important an experience miss. They’re stuck in a rut, but things brighten up one day when Josh meets aspiring filmmaker Jamie Massy (Adam Driver) and his wife Darby (Amanda Seyfried), who produces home-made organic ice cream. The 25-year-olds have sat in on Josh’s continuing education class on documentaries and Jamie gushes that Josh is his hero (he’d paid $60 for a VHS of his first film on eBay). This hip and exciting couple, young enough to be Josh and Cornelia’s kids, bring vigor and adventure into the lives of the two unsatisfied middle-agers who see the new friendship as a way to recapture their lost youth. Jamie and Darby have what Josh sees as a simplistic, more desirable lifestyle. They live for the moment, collect typewriters and vinyl LPs, watch THE HOWLING on VHS, and brag about voting for Romney. Jamie inspires Josh to buy a hat and to ride a bike, which sends him to the doctor with a hurt back while Darby introduces Cornelia to the art of hip-hop dancersize. In one of the film’s funniest sequences, the foursome attends a shaman’s ayahuasca ceremony where they ingest a purple brew that makes them hallucinate, make out, and puke. When Jamie asks Josh for help with his own documentary, he’s initially glad to help but it’s soon revealed that Jamie isn’t quiet the innocent admirer he appears to be.

While WHILE WE’RE YOUNG is at its best when it’s satirizing the differences between the two generations, Baumbach offers much more than just characterization. He tells a great story, one with twists and turns and unexpected conflict and I was surprised by the poignant and moving direction the film took toward the end. To bring his screenplay to life, Baumbach draws terrific performances from his entire cast. Watts, Driver, and Seyfried all provide wonderfully drawn characters, but the film belongs to Ben Stiller. Clearly written with the actor in mind, Josh is something of a stubborn, self-obsessed jerk, but one we always care about. Stiller inspires identification without ever evoking sympathy. One of the best scenes is when Josh meets with a wealthy hedge fund manager who wants to invest in docs. Watching Stiller flounder while failing to explain his film in simple and understandable terms is awkward and hilarious, adjectives that well- describe WHILE WE’RE YOUNG, one of the best films so far this year.

5 of 5 Stars

WHILE WE’RE YOUNG opens in St. Louis April 10th only at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Theater and The Hi-Pointe Theater