Chris Knipp
04-11-2015, 10:57 PM
Noah Baumbach: While We're Young (2014)
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ADAM DRIVER, BEN STILLER IN WHILE WE'RE YOUNG
Mid-life crisis: fatuous admiration turns to rancor
While We're Young interweaves themes of envy and deception. The envy only seems foolish and silly. The deception takes us to a more solemn and painful place. As usual Baumbach has made a smart and original movie full of keen observation. But his comedy turns sour.
Early on, middle-aged Williamsburg, Brooklyn resident Josh (Ben Stiller) and his wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) run "by chance" (it isn't) into young couple Jamie (Adam Driver of Baumbach's Frances Ha and HBO's "Girls") and his wife Darby (Amanda Seyfriend) and it just "turns out" that Jamie, like Josh, is a documentary filmmaker. Actually Josh is stagnated, at work on the same film for eight years. Cordelia's father, Leslie Breitbart (the excellent Charles Grodin), is another story, a famous documentarian about to be honored for lifetime achievement.
This situation of his wife's famous father doing the same thing he does only more successfully has always been a burden for Josh. For Jamie, it's handy. In fact it's all plotted, this meeting, and what comes later. The movie starts out as a mockery of egocentric young American hipsters and middle aged people (especially Josh) who are foolish enough to not only envy but imitate them. Then it turns harsher and sadder.
Josh is charmed by Jamie and Darby. (Cornelia is less so, but she goes along.) The youngsters are 25, Josh and his wife in their mid-forties. Jamie is not only younger and more vigorous than Josh. He's a giant: Driver is 6'3", a whole head taller than Stiller. Jamie has so much energy and enthusiasm and he's so "in the moment." Josh starts following him around, with Cornelia in tow.
Cornelia and Josh are also faced with a midlife-crisis thing: she has given up on having a baby and all their friends are having them. She doesn't care; or does she? A look in on their friend Fletcher (Adam Horwitz) with his new baby suggests child-rearing isn't the panacea their contemporaries go on about it being. "I'm still the most important person in my life," says Fletcher.
Jamie has affectations whose cuteness becomes cloying, such as putting his hands together like a Hindu to say thanks, and saying "Holy Moly!" all the time. He makes a fetish of authenticity, of the retro. He uses an IBM typewriter, builds his own furniture, listens to vinyl, with a great setuup to play it. (Where does he get the dough?) Darby makes ice cream, which Whole Foods is interested in. Jamie rides a bike, wears a porkpie hat. Josh gets one, and rides with him. He hurts his back. He looks silly in the hat.
Some of the foolishness Jamie leads Josh into isn't even youthful. It's just foolishness, like the session at the mansion of a guru where everybody is expected to have revelations on ayahuasca while throwing up into little metal tubs. On this occasion, by mistake Cornelia kisses Jamie. But no sexual crossover between the two couples occurs. Nor do the revelations on ayahuasca prove useful when it's worn off. These are pointers to the superficiality of Jamie and Darby's influence on Josh and Cornelia. The two men don't want to learn from each other; they just want to get something from each other. But only Jamie really has something to get.
The age stuff can't help seeming a little personal, with Baumbach 45, like Josh ( Stiller 49, Watts 46, in real life). In 2011 Baumbach ended an eight-year relationship with Jennifer Jason Leigh, who's 53, and hooked up with Greta Gerwig, who's 31. That would make you think about youth. But Baumbach is taking his midlife crisis with a strong dose of irony. Yes, younger people are appealing, he's saying. But they're also obnoxious, and it's embarrassing when older people imitate them. Jamie actually delivers the old cliche that he can't believe he's ever going to die. The suspicion arises that Jamie may not just be young, but also an asshole. In fact Cornelia has never been as impressed by him as Josh. Nor Darby either, it turns out. Adam Driver is very good in this movie: we never know whether to admire him or hate him.
As hinted by Adam Driver's "Girls" connection While We're Young leads into TV humor territory of a sophisticated and New York kind, such as the focus on the bogged down leftist politics in Josh's failed film. He's learned young people now think Marx's "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" comes from the Declaration of Independence. Baumbach delves into the problems of working too long on a documentary. The leftist voice of Josh's film, Ira Mandelstam (Peter Yarrow) may now be losing it. (A gratuitous urinating scene -- to which "Girls" is no stranger -- is thrown in to show this.) In various segments of his film Josh has a moustache, a beard, and no beard, which will look ludicrous and must be edited out and reshot. There is also a lot of unnecessary material Josh is reluctant to cut out. And he's reluctant to take his wise and diplomatic father-in-law's advice on this.
Baumbach knows this kind of thing well. Maybe he, like Josh, should have cut some of it out. But it feels like the specifics of documentary-making, along with he goofy charm of Jamie's first impression, are the two most memorable things in the movie.
But then there's the last, angry part. All of a sudden, with Josh at first as deceived "witness," Jamie plans his own documentary about an Afghan war vet and goes to work at it with breakneck speed. He draws in Josh and maybe Josh's father-in-law. And then Josh learns he's been had and sets about to expose Jamie's deception. It's an effort that clumsily coincides with his father-in-law's big career celebration.
Nothing clumsy about this finale: it's a neat juggling act. Yet its excitement feels blown up and rather mean-spirited. The comedy dies away. Still, it makes sense to be disillusioned, as Josh becomes, in a world where all material is up for grabs -- and intellectual property rights are considered a laughable matter. Not much comedy in that.
While We're Young doesn't end on a comic high, and it doesn't pack much of an emotional punch. That's not the way it works. But it can provide some droll moments. The new mothers' baby singing session Cornelia happily escapes from fast, for instance; or the impossibly lively, expletive-intensive hip hop class she gets corralled into. Ryan Serhant is priceless as the hedge fund manager Josh uselessly pitches to -- his reactions are two dozen variations on "I don't care" -- who then turns up at again at Leslie Breitbart's celebration dinner table, now an unquestioning supporter of Jamie. The casting has depth, including Brady Corbet in a very brief role as well as Peter Bogdonovitch.
While We're Young, 97 mins., debuted at Toronto, US theatrical release beginning 27 March 2015, with showings and releases continuing in various countries and at various festivals.
http://www.chrisknipp.com/links/450.jpg
ADAM DRIVER, BEN STILLER IN WHILE WE'RE YOUNG
Mid-life crisis: fatuous admiration turns to rancor
While We're Young interweaves themes of envy and deception. The envy only seems foolish and silly. The deception takes us to a more solemn and painful place. As usual Baumbach has made a smart and original movie full of keen observation. But his comedy turns sour.
Early on, middle-aged Williamsburg, Brooklyn resident Josh (Ben Stiller) and his wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) run "by chance" (it isn't) into young couple Jamie (Adam Driver of Baumbach's Frances Ha and HBO's "Girls") and his wife Darby (Amanda Seyfriend) and it just "turns out" that Jamie, like Josh, is a documentary filmmaker. Actually Josh is stagnated, at work on the same film for eight years. Cordelia's father, Leslie Breitbart (the excellent Charles Grodin), is another story, a famous documentarian about to be honored for lifetime achievement.
This situation of his wife's famous father doing the same thing he does only more successfully has always been a burden for Josh. For Jamie, it's handy. In fact it's all plotted, this meeting, and what comes later. The movie starts out as a mockery of egocentric young American hipsters and middle aged people (especially Josh) who are foolish enough to not only envy but imitate them. Then it turns harsher and sadder.
Josh is charmed by Jamie and Darby. (Cornelia is less so, but she goes along.) The youngsters are 25, Josh and his wife in their mid-forties. Jamie is not only younger and more vigorous than Josh. He's a giant: Driver is 6'3", a whole head taller than Stiller. Jamie has so much energy and enthusiasm and he's so "in the moment." Josh starts following him around, with Cornelia in tow.
Cornelia and Josh are also faced with a midlife-crisis thing: she has given up on having a baby and all their friends are having them. She doesn't care; or does she? A look in on their friend Fletcher (Adam Horwitz) with his new baby suggests child-rearing isn't the panacea their contemporaries go on about it being. "I'm still the most important person in my life," says Fletcher.
Jamie has affectations whose cuteness becomes cloying, such as putting his hands together like a Hindu to say thanks, and saying "Holy Moly!" all the time. He makes a fetish of authenticity, of the retro. He uses an IBM typewriter, builds his own furniture, listens to vinyl, with a great setuup to play it. (Where does he get the dough?) Darby makes ice cream, which Whole Foods is interested in. Jamie rides a bike, wears a porkpie hat. Josh gets one, and rides with him. He hurts his back. He looks silly in the hat.
Some of the foolishness Jamie leads Josh into isn't even youthful. It's just foolishness, like the session at the mansion of a guru where everybody is expected to have revelations on ayahuasca while throwing up into little metal tubs. On this occasion, by mistake Cornelia kisses Jamie. But no sexual crossover between the two couples occurs. Nor do the revelations on ayahuasca prove useful when it's worn off. These are pointers to the superficiality of Jamie and Darby's influence on Josh and Cornelia. The two men don't want to learn from each other; they just want to get something from each other. But only Jamie really has something to get.
The age stuff can't help seeming a little personal, with Baumbach 45, like Josh ( Stiller 49, Watts 46, in real life). In 2011 Baumbach ended an eight-year relationship with Jennifer Jason Leigh, who's 53, and hooked up with Greta Gerwig, who's 31. That would make you think about youth. But Baumbach is taking his midlife crisis with a strong dose of irony. Yes, younger people are appealing, he's saying. But they're also obnoxious, and it's embarrassing when older people imitate them. Jamie actually delivers the old cliche that he can't believe he's ever going to die. The suspicion arises that Jamie may not just be young, but also an asshole. In fact Cornelia has never been as impressed by him as Josh. Nor Darby either, it turns out. Adam Driver is very good in this movie: we never know whether to admire him or hate him.
As hinted by Adam Driver's "Girls" connection While We're Young leads into TV humor territory of a sophisticated and New York kind, such as the focus on the bogged down leftist politics in Josh's failed film. He's learned young people now think Marx's "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" comes from the Declaration of Independence. Baumbach delves into the problems of working too long on a documentary. The leftist voice of Josh's film, Ira Mandelstam (Peter Yarrow) may now be losing it. (A gratuitous urinating scene -- to which "Girls" is no stranger -- is thrown in to show this.) In various segments of his film Josh has a moustache, a beard, and no beard, which will look ludicrous and must be edited out and reshot. There is also a lot of unnecessary material Josh is reluctant to cut out. And he's reluctant to take his wise and diplomatic father-in-law's advice on this.
Baumbach knows this kind of thing well. Maybe he, like Josh, should have cut some of it out. But it feels like the specifics of documentary-making, along with he goofy charm of Jamie's first impression, are the two most memorable things in the movie.
But then there's the last, angry part. All of a sudden, with Josh at first as deceived "witness," Jamie plans his own documentary about an Afghan war vet and goes to work at it with breakneck speed. He draws in Josh and maybe Josh's father-in-law. And then Josh learns he's been had and sets about to expose Jamie's deception. It's an effort that clumsily coincides with his father-in-law's big career celebration.
Nothing clumsy about this finale: it's a neat juggling act. Yet its excitement feels blown up and rather mean-spirited. The comedy dies away. Still, it makes sense to be disillusioned, as Josh becomes, in a world where all material is up for grabs -- and intellectual property rights are considered a laughable matter. Not much comedy in that.
While We're Young doesn't end on a comic high, and it doesn't pack much of an emotional punch. That's not the way it works. But it can provide some droll moments. The new mothers' baby singing session Cornelia happily escapes from fast, for instance; or the impossibly lively, expletive-intensive hip hop class she gets corralled into. Ryan Serhant is priceless as the hedge fund manager Josh uselessly pitches to -- his reactions are two dozen variations on "I don't care" -- who then turns up at again at Leslie Breitbart's celebration dinner table, now an unquestioning supporter of Jamie. The casting has depth, including Brady Corbet in a very brief role as well as Peter Bogdonovitch.
While We're Young, 97 mins., debuted at Toronto, US theatrical release beginning 27 March 2015, with showings and releases continuing in various countries and at various festivals.