Review of While We're Young (2015) by Kyle H — 24 Nov 2015

I suppose I'm in the minority of kids my age who long for the days when they're behind in pop culture. I can't wait until I talk to my entitled kids about how huge One Direction was back in the day as they're on a reunion tour while some other boy band is capturing the hearts of a new generation of prepubescent girls. I can't wait for the day when I try to force my kids to watch "Toy Story" or "The Parent Trap," while they, electronic devices in hand, roll their eyes at the outdated animation style, the tired premise, as they surf through the walls of Tumblr's newest counterpart. Something about being considered "too old" to be cool is appealing to me, when the roles are reversed and I suddenly start to look like my parents.

But Noah Baumbach's "While We're Young" doesn't celebrate the truths of getting older with a winking eye; it, instead, studies the crises that arrive with wrinkles and long ago self-discovery, beginning as a cheeky comedy of manners that descends into a somewhat serious critique regarding the next generation of adults and how their hopes, their desires, conflict with the less entitled Generation X. It is at once light and whip-smart; Baumbach ("Frances Ha," "The Squid and the Whale") starts at the shallow end and plunges into the deep. It has a lot more on its mind than what we might originally expect.

Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts star as Josh and Cornelia, a married couple in their 40s without kids, without financial stress, and without gaps to deter their union. They are relatively happy, Josh a documentary filmmaker in the midst of a years-long artistic blockage, Cornelia the daughter of a successful director (Charles Grodin). "If we wanted to take off to Paris tomorrow, we could," Cornelia assures Josh after he briefly questions how "exciting" they are as a couple. "But a month is still in the realm of spontaneity.".

Yet their seemingly rock solid marriage hits a snag when they meet Jamie and Darby (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried), a young, hipster-leaning couple who pop into the lives of their older counterparts through a coincidence and ultimately energizes their dusty lifestyle through a seemingly unforced carefree attitude. Josh is impressed by how open Jamie is toward art and music; Cornelia enjoys the way Darby lives a perfectly happy life despite not having a real job or real ambition. But consistent refreshment can eventually sour, after all, and it doesn't take long for Josh and Cornelia to ponder just how thrilling their lives have become - and how much they've become the people they've always dreamed to be.

"While We're Young" is at its best when it's alone with Josh and Cornelia, analyzing them the further they become immersed in the lives of Jamie and Darby. Look at the way Josh begins wearing a fedora not realizing just how stupid he looks; gaze upon Cornelia, attempting not to laugh, and she practices for the hip/hop class she attends with Darby. These are people who, for most of their adults lives, have had it all - success, bliss, a wonderful marriage. But somehow the inclusion of a pair of young individuals causes them to question everything they've gone through, and the film is convincingly adept at studying them without accidentally turning to caricature. Baumbach effectively depicts the not-so humorous reality of the mid-life crisis, and Stiller and Watts are more than persuasive when portraying the plights of their characters.

Though I'm not so sure about the last act, which, surprisingly, begins to reflect a film about investigative journalism (Josh discovers that much of Jamie's authenticity is actually fraudulent), "While We're Young" is an excellently written character study disguised as a subtle comedy. Baumbach only gets better with age; don't listen to the millennials thinking they've got leverage over their elders.