Oh, those yuppies are getting old.
While We’re Young
Grade: B+
Director: Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha)
Screenplay: Baumbach (Fantastic Mr. Fox)
Cast: Ben Stiller (Little Fockers), Naomi Watts (Birdman)
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 min.
by John DeSando
If you’re wondering where aging yuppies are these days, some of them are in Noah Baumbach’s knowing and biting comedy/drama, While We’re Young. Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) are forty-something’s with time on their hands (they don’t seem to have financial worries) to worry about their aging and the biz, namely his creating a documentary and she producing documentaries for her famous documentarian father (Charles Grodin). And, oh, yes, they’re still talking about having a baby although she acknowledges her time has passed.
Into their lives come the outsiders, who almost always will be trouble makers in a film. Jamie (Adam Driver) is a wannabe doc maker and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) a swell-looking young partner. Besides the issue of the 18 or so years differences in ages between the couples, a generational divide makes the older couple envy the vigor and life affirming younger couple, while the latter seems to want everything the elders should have such as a vast vinyl library.
Those envies make for good drama and thought-provoking issues like what’s the best way to enjoy life and is documentary film making an exercise in truth or fiction? These topics help elevate the film from the Judd-Apatow superficiality to more substantial issues regardless of age.
The screen fills with problems of identity, ageism, and technology, initially in favor of the new and young but later on more sobering thoughts about deleterious self-absorption. Along the way is a refreshing performance by Charles Grodin as a mature filmmaker and Cornelia’s father, whose liberal acceptance of the old and the new strikes the social balance and documentary ambivalence the film seems to be promoting. The comedic elements evaporate as the film tackles these big issues, and it doesn’t take prisoners for either side.
While some cineastes will delight in the reference to Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, While We’re Young has better things to do like reflect the painful uncertainties plaguing all humans going through life’s relentless age cycles.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
While We’re Young
Grade: B+
Director: Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha)
Screenplay: Baumbach (Fantastic Mr. Fox)
Cast: Ben Stiller (Little Fockers), Naomi Watts (Birdman)
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 min.
by John DeSando
If you’re wondering where aging yuppies are these days, some of them are in Noah Baumbach’s knowing and biting comedy/drama, While We’re Young. Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) are forty-something’s with time on their hands (they don’t seem to have financial worries) to worry about their aging and the biz, namely his creating a documentary and she producing documentaries for her famous documentarian father (Charles Grodin). And, oh, yes, they’re still talking about having a baby although she acknowledges her time has passed.
Into their lives come the outsiders, who almost always will be trouble makers in a film. Jamie (Adam Driver) is a wanabe doc maker and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) a swell-looking young partner. Besides the issue of the 18 or so years differences in ages between the couples, a generational divide makes the older couple envy the vigor and life affirming younger couple, while the latter seems to want everything the elders should have such as a vast vinyl library.
Such envies make for good drama and thought-provoking issues such as what’s the best way to enjoy life and is documentary film making an exercise in truth or fiction. These topics help elevate the film from the Judd-Apatow superficiality to more substantial issues regardless of age.
The screen fills with problems of identity, ageism, and technology, initially in favor of the new and young but later on more sobering thoughts about deleterious self-absorption. Along the way is a refreshing performance by Charles Grodin as a mature filmmaker and Cornelia’s father, whose liberal acceptance of the old and the new strikes the social balance and documentary ambivalence the film seems to be promoting. The comedic elements evaporate as the film tackles these big issues, and it doesn’t take prisoners for either side.
While some cineastes will delight in the reference to Woody Allen’s Crimes and Misdemeanors, While We’re Young has better things to do like reflect the painful uncertainties plaguing all humans going through life’s relentless age cycles.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
