Since the halcyon days of 1992-2000, which we hope may come again, Gen X people have somewhat become more like their parents than they realize. Eventually careers, children, social economic and political ideals, nostalgia and uncertainty follow. This will eventually come to people my age who were not even supposed to still be alive after the mid 1980s, if it has not happened already. That sort of wistfulness and crossroads uncertainty has been apparent in many of Noah Baumbach's films: an amalgamation of Woody Allen humor, Peter Bogdanovich esthetics, Louis Malle intimacy, Whit Stillman East Coast sensibilities, Wallace Shawn writing and Andre Gregory philosophy. One can see this in past works like Kicking and Screaming (1995), The Squid and The Whale (2005), or even films that he co-wrote for Wes Anderson; The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou (2004) and Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), a personal favorite of mine. It is in these ideals and personal concerns that Mr. Baumbach has written and directed a hidden gem that I think is one of the better films I have seen this year, even though it was completed in 2014. This movie is named While We're Young, a rather funny, smart and opinionated film that I hope will find a wider audience before the year is out.
It stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts as a married couple without children in their early to mid 40s who are in the business of making documentaries. While they have experience in wisdom and life, they do lack that certain something that makes fulfillment attainable. Perhaps it could be the matter that Stiller's character (Josh) is trying to measure up to doing a great film like his father-in-law, played by Charles Grodin in a welcoming return to acting. The current project Josh (Stiller) is doing has been 8 years in the making, largely due to hours upon hours of filmed interviews with a fictionalized version of Dr. Noam Chomsky. That character, used intermittently yet with importance, is played by Peter Yarrow; yes, Peter of Peter, Paul & Mary. What he says is of course correct in many ways of our political futures; though it was quite a shock to hear Mr. Yarrow drop the f-bomb at one point.
Perhaps it is because their neighboring couple and best friends have a child of their own, a baby we see in the first shot while a toy piano version of the Sir David Bowie classic Golden Years is being played by James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem). The couple with the child themselves seem to have moved forward, only slightly, from their more bohemian younger selves. They are played rather convincingly by Tony Award winner Maria Dizzia and Adam Horowitz, better known to us as Ad-Rock from Beastie Boys. Even though they have a child, and another on the way, there is still a sense that the most important people in their lives, as intimated by Horowitz later in the film, are still themselves.
This existential crisis Stiller and Watts have becomes further observed when they become friends in several ways than one with a younger married couple of mid 20s age that live a rather hipster throwback and artsy life. These two, played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried, are the sort of couple that many would think are what the Millenial kids should be at best: youthful with respect to their elders, yet also willing to consider ideas and objects their own to share. Driver's character is also a filmmaker interested in documentaries, while Seyfried's character is kind of a free spirit who enjoys making organic artisanal ice cream and co-producing films. There are of course different approaches to their documentary filmmaking; while Stiller's and Grodin's characters are presented in the same way as we see Robert Flaherty, Errol Morris, D.A. Pennebaker and the Maysles family (Albert Maysles having just passed away): Driver's filmmaking approach is clearly reminiscent of Michael Moore, Andrew Jarecki, Spike Lee and Werner Herzog, in which the filmmaker is as important as the subject.
This comes at a certain point in which the Adam Driver character (Jamie) approaches Stiller and Watts for help with his eventual documentary. It starts out as Jamie (Driver) decides to actually film a reunion with a Facebook friend from his high school days. The friend, played by Brady Corbet, turns out to have served in Afghanistan and every so often has difficulties in emotional matters. Thus, the documentary being made goes from one matter to another more important matter.
What occurs afterward takes us to an interesting look at growing up, reconsidering priorities, the art of storytelling, reclaiming one's youth, and most surprisingly yet most tellingly how we tell stories in the newer forms of documentaries to at least make a personal statement. These theories and ideals will be explained later in my next weblog post; one that will divulge into plot details and what Noah Baumbach, and to an extant Scott Rudin, are attempting with relative success to say regarding film and the person who claims authorship. Unlike my review of It Follows, I do not think While We're Young is a film that needs the plot to be the end point of how we look at the movie.
Suffice to say, I came into seeing While We're Young expecting one entertaining look at relationships in our current age. What came out of the screening was a lot more thoughtful and multilayered than even I would have expected. In some ways, it is kind of like when you watch a program on Adult Swim; it presents itself as one thing, then becomes another thing entirely which becomes more ambiguous in message. I think Movie Bob explains this concisely in a recent video of his when discussing the Adult Swim esthetic.
Getting back on point; the Noah Baumbach film While We're Young is one of the better films I have seen this year, and might still be among my personal favorites before 2015 ends. Do go see this film; I will have more to say on this with my next weblog post. Please do comment and reply if you are able to.
More Coming, Stay Tuned,
Robert
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