While We're Young

I saw the trailers for this, thought it looked funny and i like Stiller so gave it a whirl. What a mistake! This is not the comedy the trailers made it out to be, they show the best bits and when it came to watching the whole film it fell flat. This film was trying to be an intellectual dark comedy, maybe in the vein of Woody Allen but lacked the style, sophistication and plot. The mid life crisis thing, done many times before but better, the role reversal with the oldies doing the social media thing and the younger couple living like hippie bohemians felt like an attempt to be clever but just didn't feel real. The whole moral conscience thing Stiller had was muddled because of the way the plot didn't really make out that anyone had done anything very much wrong. This was deliberate but made the whole morality issue just too subtle for the audience to care. At the end i couldn't care less whether they had a baby together or not and found it all very irritating. I know it was supposed to be allegorical and therefore clever but to me at least it was just badly done and a bit pretentious.

So I get what the film was aiming for, but I've gotta say, I'm incredibly shocked by its critical reception. I don't think it's "bad", really, but just thoroughly mediocre and really obnoxious. I don't know why, but something about it came off so incredibly forced and fake. It has some good acting and none of it is offensive or anything, but something about it annoyed me in a way I can't really pinpoint. I love Naomi Watts, but she was part of the problem. There just wasn't any synchrony between the performers I don't think. Either that or between their performances and the tone the film was aiming for. I'm perplexed because none of it I can really put my finger on, except that there is absolutely nothing of real note or anything that will be memorable even a day after watching it (well, that's not true, since I saw it a day ago). Not worth it

Watching people realizing they're no longer young and hip naturally lends itself well to humor, drama, and self-examination, but the subject matter alone doesn't always naturally lend itself to a neatly formed story. The writer/director has to handle that part. Good thing this movie has Noah Baumbach.

Baumbach brings a knowing touch to this film, always seeming to strike a fitting balance between humor, drama, and analysis, all without ever feeling heavy handed or condescending. He allows his characters to show viewers the dichotomy of a young, idealistic (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) juxtaposed against the aging couple (Ben Stiller and Naomi Watt) who have lost a bit of luster but are a bit in denial about their quasi-happiness.

After the couples meet and become fast friends, it's the older couple who draws inspiration from the young. They slip right back into their own youthful beliefs about the world and how they should exist in it. Some of their thoughts are meaningful, while others are sappy and, well, juvenile. Despite recognizing the silliness of the young couple's lifestyle, like watching VHS tapes and listening to records just because, it's easy as a viewer to fall under their spell. Driver and Seyfried are effortlessly charming, and their exuberance and self-certainty make them appealing role models.

The epiphany about how to live life that the young couple gives to the older one is a little too easy and convenient. Something must be off. Baumbach was simply reeling us in, making us listen more closely as he continues his story.

This is where the most crucial part of the movie arrives, and it's the one Baumbach handles with less success. Just as the salient message of the movie should be coming into focus, the story instead veers swiftly towards a grumpy take on the ethics of documentary filmmaking.

The third act is a little unsatisfying, but it is certainly not enough to erase what is on the whole an intelligent, humorous and enjoyable movie.

5/10 might not seem like a good rating, but it's a strong 5. This movie is definitely worth seeing, but only if you're okay with mild disappointments and outdated "we can't be happy without having kids" Disney-like thinking.

Movie does indeed have a good start - Ben Stiller & Naomi Watts play their roles well and make lots of good points of how we can sometimes be unhappy with our past decisions and our lives. Movie also captures well how people change when they grow up; one ends up having kids, another focuses on his/her career or other things.

Sadly "While We're Young" doesn't grasp all that there could've been. The ending leaves you kinda sad/disappointed/with mixed feelings. To put it plainly; it doesn't deliver.

It feels as if we're back in "Greenburg" territory with "While We're Young" made four years later, since we have the same writer and director (Noah Baumbach) and the same lead actor (Ben Stiller) playing a similar central character. This time, Stiller is Josh, married to Cornelia (Naomi Watts), a middle-aged married couple who find themselves hooking up with Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried), a couple in their twenties, who remind the older pair of the freshness and spontaneity of youth while he struggles professionally and she laments their inability to become parents.

The female roles are underwritten and, while Driver is good, this is really Stiller's film. The trouble is that he is such an irritating character, unable to complete a long-running project to produce a boring documentary and foolishly trying to recapture his lost youth. There are some funny scenes and situations, but this is an uneven work with a sequence at a hippy retreat proving particularly silly.