While We're Young

Noah Baumbach's latest feature While We're Young continues in a similar vein to his two previous films Greenberg and Frances Ha of being unable to find direction and comfort in your own life; only this time he adds in the idea of getting old. Baumbach also confusingly shoehorns in a subplot about authenticity in documentary, which threw me about what the film was actually about.

Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) are a couple who are experiencing a rough patch in their life due to indecision over having children. Josh is a documentarian who was been working on the same film for close to a decade and is struggling to complete the project. One day after giving a lecture, he meets a young couple, Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) and decides to spend time with them after learning Jamie is a fellow documentarian. Both Josh and Cornelia start to regain their youth by spending time with Jamie and Darby.

This movie wants to make you think that it is all about getting old and dealing with it, but Baumbach replaces this story rather quickly with the idea of authenticity (or the lack of it) in documentary filmmaking. Josh finds out that Jamie's style of documentary making is far from genuine and seeks to expose his ways. This storyline dominates the majority of the film and everything else is dropped in lieu of it. That's where this movie falls apart, it could have been a fun movie about to grown ups realising the life that young people lead isn't for everyone, but Baumbach gets to this in a rather roundabout way.

None of the lead actors bring their best to this film. Both Watts and Seyfried are relegated to the background of the movie and therefore we don't care about them. Driver gives an entirely lazy performance here. He is so much better in other movies, but here he really calls it in. Stiller is the worst offender of the film. We are supposed find the main character relatable, or at least likeable, but his character is a total asshole. Only Charles Grodin and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock of The Beastie Boys) give the most passable performances.

All in all, this is a missed opportunity of a movie. What could have been a smart, funny movie about the idea of growing old gracefully ends up being an unfunny mess about the ethics behind documentaries. Baumbach needs to change his approach.