Review of While We're Young (2015) by Chancey P — 07 Oct 2015

A middle-aged couple befriends a younger couple and embarks on a documentary project.

Writer/director Noah Baumbach fashions a simple but affecting story contrasting youth and mortality, balanced with a rather pedestrian story about the making of a documentary. It's clear that he wants to explore the former group of themes and occasionally digress into pedantry about the nature of art in documentary films, but While We're Young's primary strength is that it avoids too much didacticism.

Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, and Amanda Seyfried all give excellent performances, but it's Stiller who most clearly understands Baumbach's unique blending of character development and thematic exploration, and his performance is the most honed -- probably the result of his experience in other Baumbach films.

The film's resolution (its final moments, not the genius send-up of "the great detective's reveal") is far too pat for my tastes, but that doesn't besmirch the fact that so much of what came before hit all the right notes.

Overall, while not all that profound, Baumbach proves to be an excellent story-teller and fascinating artist.