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Monday, April 13, 2015

Going Deeper to explain While We're Young

Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second.
Jean-Luc Godard, 1960.

The new Noah Baumbach movie While We're Young is, I think above all, a look at what one sort of people who grew up in one area consider the need for truth as opposed to another more youthful sort of people.  Now, at this point, I am going to explain more of the structures and plot this movie has towards the last half hour or so.  I mention this for a reason:  a number of film columnists and reviewers like Richard Roeper have said the film turns somewhat differently that for them dampened the movie from being amongst the better films this year.  I tend to disagree; if anything, the last half hour, while still humorous, goes deeper in thematic approach than one would consider.

For those not aware, the Ben Stiller character (Josh) begins to have many in his life tell him what needs to be done to have his documentary on war be presentable.  Quite obviously, the Charles Grodin character (Leslie) is the first to offer suggestions; namely that Josh (Stiiler's) film is 6 1/2 hours long with drawn out lectures, like a retelling of the Turkish Civil War, that could be cut.  Now, there are times when cutting something is completely asinine: the Claude Lanzmann masterpiece Shoah needs its 9 1/2 running time, for example.  Yet, in the movie, the Turkish Civil War discussion is roundly criticized by all but Josh.  While these reevaluations occur, Stiller's character notices in the documentary the Adam Driver character (Jamie) that it appears their interview subject, played by Brady Corbet, knew Driver and Amanda Seyfried's character well before. 

Thinking this is way of revealing the documentary as being more fictionalized than anything, and after the Amanda Seyfried character effectively leaves Jamie (Driver), Josh heads to Lincoln Center where Jamie's film is premiering and a life achievement is being given to Leslie (Grodin).  I was rather impressed in how Stiller and Driver's discussion at the balcony is interspersed with first Peter Bogdanovich lamenting the form of documentaries from the past to how it is done recently, and then Grodin's acceptance speech citing truth and authenticity.  No fighting, no abject embarrassment, yet three actors speaking about the truth in cinema. 

Now, normally the movie would conclude with the fabricator exposed and everything going well for all other characters.  This is not that kind of movie.  In Noah Baumbach's script, the revelation of Jamie's loose interpretation of facts is given a shrug; including from Leslie!  How the other characters, including the Naomi Watts character, see it is that the truth of how a documentary is made matters little if the filmmaker has something important to say.  For instance, Werner Herzog has stated quite a few times that certain scenes in his documentaries are prepared before the camera rolls.  That fact , however, does not diminish the overall truth and knowledge brought forth on the subjects in question.  In the end, the filmmaker has the decision to choose where his or her documentary will be looked at by viewers.  What I think Baumbach has presented in While We're Young is that while people Josh's age will be drawn to the Robert Flaherty/Errol Morris examples of  their craft; people Jamie's age will feel more at ease with Herzog/Spike Lee/Michael Moore non-fiction films where the filmmaker is just as important as the subject.  Leslie's acceptance of this might baffle some, after a speech citing truth and realness as of significant matter.  Yet, it is still the truth to the filmmaker and the writer; just done differently.

The movie ends rather uniquely: Stiller and Watts' characters are on their way to Central America to take home their adopted one month old daughter, fulfilling a desire both had in expanding their family.  Driver is interviewed by Vanity Fair for the documentary on the Corbet character; thus indicating the form of filmmaker as both subject and journalist.  The last shots are of Josh (Stiller) looking at a two year old boy becoming some sort of a prodigy on his iPhone.  Their is in the movie, and was in the audience, both excitement and concern on this young man; again only reiterating Baumbach's thoughts on younger people and their adherence to technology that they feel has always been there and the sort of artificial worldview that comes with it. 

You know, for myself I tend to follow the idea that a filmmaker of a documentary is also eventually its subject; in that what he or she needs to say is the crux and important function of what we are seeing.  The idea for a movie needs to start somewhere for someone to get interested.  I tend to think Noah Baumbach might look at it that way as well, though it would be more interesting to merge the two fields of filmmaking.  Indeed, while we do not see the finished product of Josh's film, he does cut the Turkish Civil War sections as he appears to consider newer trends and esthetics.

Yet, perhaps at its heart, While We're Young is more a look at relationships today and what differs the older generations from those following their footsteps.  More time is discussed on these personal ideals than the ideals of truth and filmmaking itself.  It is that for me, this allowed Baumbach's film to elevate a rather typical romantic comedy outlet into a rather clever discussion of filmmaking and a growing if not yet noticed cultural shift taking place.  And as I mentioned before, certain works are presented as one idea yet in deeper analysis are more layered; bringing forth the need to view, read or hear at least a second time to fully grasp the author's intentions.  Noah Baumbach has made one of these multi layered films that I would hope gets viewed and even studied by many. 

It is intelligent filmmaking; a form of art that I feel is beginning to fade away.  In another weblog post, I will at some point present my ideas on why cinema is not what it once was; and where we as a collective people could now find common interests and discussions.  For me at least, I will amongst other things continue to do what I have done for the last 14 years: see for the most part one movie in theaters a week.  It is an art form that needs to be rediscovered before it loses its own purpose and ideals.

Talk to you again soon,

Robert

PS.  I will also have a lot more to say about the coming elections, both in the UK and the US, as the days and months go on.  In much of America, people follow politics.  Where I live in New York, politics follows You!  I am fine with it, but many I know are not.

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