WHILE WE’RE YOUNG (15)

Posted by ruthmedia on April 2, 2015 in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

WHILE WE’RE YOUNG (15)

Run time: 97mins

Director: Noah Baumbach

Cast: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Driver, Charles Grodin

Synopsis: Josh and Cornelia are happily married middle-aged members of New York’s creative class. Josh labours over the umpteenth edit of his cerebral new film, it’s clear that he has hit a dry patch and that something is still missing. Enter Jamie and Darby a free-spirited young couple, who are spontaneous and ready to drop everything in pursuit of their next passion. For Josh, it’s as if a door has opened back to his youth—or a youth he wishes he once had. It’s not long before the restless forty-somethings, Josh and Cornelia, throw aside friends their own age to trail after these young hipsters who seem so plugged in, so uninhibited, so Brooklyn cool.

https://www.facebook.com/whilewereyoungmovie?fref=ts

This glorious, hilarious, thought-provoking generational comedy from director Noah Baumbach [Frances Ha (2012), The Squid and the Whale (2005)] boasts an outstanding ensemble cast.

It tackles the bittersweet theme of growing older and feeling younger and offers many wry moments of recognition. Josh (Ben Stiller) is a middle aged, stalled documentary film maker settled with wife, Cornelia (Naomi Watts).  His eyesight is failing, his memory unreliable and and he doesn’t have that creative spark or ambition anymore. Then he meets aspiring filmmaker Jamie (Adam Driver) and wife, Darby (Amanda Seyfried) and everything changes as the four become close friends despite the age differences.  Cornelia is flattered by their attention and energised by their enthusiasm and ‘retro’ /‘hipster’ lifestyle. ’ It’s like their apartment is full of everything we once threw out’, Cornelia remarks and soon they abandon prudence and their own friends for the new relationship.

However, the carefree tone darkens into something more profound, and when issues about the ethics of documentary film-making emerge, Josh and Cornelia are compelled to act their age.

The chemistry between Stiller and Watts is outstanding and Adam Driver is excellent as the duplicitous Jamie; plus there is a superb cameo from veteran Charles Grodin as Josh’s eminent documentary film-maker father-in-law.  A film not to miss.

Images courtesy of Icon Film Distribution