It’s always been the prerogative of older generations to look
upon the younger with a mix of disdain, apprehension, and occasional horror. As
impossible as it is to pinpoint the exact moment when one transitions into the
other, the growing sense of a younger generation nipping at your heels is an
inevitable part of getting older. The quote from Henrik Ibsen’s “The Master
Builder” that opens writer-director Noah Baumbach’s
“While We’re Young” reminds us that this fist-shaking “kids today”
mindset was already a thing way back in 1892.
An
intergenerational comedy of manners that pokes at our collective anxieties
about aging, “While We’re Young” follows the friendship between two New York
couples: middle-aged Generation-Xers Josh (Ben Stiller, prickly as ever) and
Cornelia (Naomi Watts), and 20-something hipster bohemians Jamie (Adam Driver)
and his wife Darby (Amanda Seyfried), who crash
Josh’s documentary film class and end up charming their way into the lives of
the older couple.
Josh and
Cornelia have felt themselves drifting away from their friends, most of whom
have become consumed with the responsibilities of parenthood. Josh and
Cornelia’s closest friends, played by Maria Dizzia
and Adam Horovitz (also known as Ad-Rock of the
Beastie Boys) are the most recent casualties to have been sucked into the
quicksand of adulthood. That a member of a hip-hop group so notorious for
raging against parental authority is now a dad with salt-and-pepper hair and a
baby strapped to his chest is more than just a cute joke, it’s basically the
movie’s thesis. Josh and Cornelia’s own attempts at children have ended in
miscarriages and discouragement, and they’ve gradually given up on the idea
completely. Maybe it’s better this way, they think: being childless in New York
grants them a freedom their peers will never see again.
As Josh and
Cornelia strike up a friendship with Jamie and Darby, they find themselves
equally invigorated by and envious of the retro-chic existence of their
youthful counterparts. With the younger couple’s encouragement, they enroll in
hip-hop classes, take up bicycling, and participate in an ayahuasca
ceremony in which they ingest hallucinogens as part of a vomit-filled cleansing
ritual. It’s enough to get them out of the rut they’ve been stuck in and
excited about the possibilities that life has to offer. But of course the
honeymoon can’t last.
A one-time
documentary filmmaker, Josh has been tinkering with his current project for
pushing a decade, and over the years it’s grown into a six-hour monstrosity;
the type that requires him to tie himself in knots whenever he’s asked to
pinpoint exactly what it’s “about.” He’s rejected any advice given to him by
Cornelia’s father (underplayed nicely by Charles Grodin),
a revered documentarian in the mold of Frederick Wiseman, whom Josh resents and
respects in equal measure. Baumbach suggests that
Josh’s insular nature is part of the problem, and the film becomes in part
about him learning to be more of a collaborator. An aspiring filmmaker in his
own right, Jamie stumbles on an intriguing idea for a documentary, convincing
Josh to mentor him as he puts it to film. As their partnership evolves, the
film slowly morphs into an examination of the sometimes dubious ethical
boundaries of the younger generations.
“While We’re
Young” transcends a potentially sitcom-y premise with a sharp tone and witty
observations about generational appropriation, the nature of authenticity, and
the blurry line between truth and fiction. The third act, in which Josh becomes
preoccupied with proving that Jamie’s a fraud, allows a little too much of Baumbach’s own righteous anger to bubble to the surface; it
comes across as the director wagging his finger, and he wants those youngsters
off his lawn, dammit. But this is a minor complaint in a film that maintains a
mostly light touch while delivering some sharp insights.
As a filmmaker,
Baumbach has always been preoccupied with characters
who have trouble taking the next step toward adulthood, whether that be the
adolescents living with their parents’ bitter divorce in “The Squid and the
Whale” or the funk of post-college young adulthood faced by the characters in
“Kicking and Screaming” and the director’s wonderful “Frances Ha.” That film in
particular reveled in its character’s self-absorption, but was ultimately a
more fair-minded and sympathetic depiction of the millennial generation. That
Jamie doesn’t come across as a complete cartoon is a testament to Driver’s
likeable screen presence. Watts deliverers her loosest, funniest performance in
years, and though Seyfried is good, her character
suffers from not being as sharply defined as those around her.
In depicting
these battles between the generations, “While We’re Young” understands that
all-too-familiar feeling that no matter our age, we’re all just pretending to
be grownups.
This article appears in Apr 8-14, 2015.
