The NYFF officially kicked off this year’s fest with the premiere of David Fincher’s Gone Girl, but as soon as that ended everyone’s excitement rapidly turned to the secret screening. In the past, audiences were treated to an unfinished version of Hugo and the following year they got to see Spielberg’s Lincoln, two very high profile films, so you can imagine the excitement for this year’s screening. To this dismay of a majority of the audience, this year’s screening was not a world premiere nor a film that had audiences clamoring to see it. Instead, the NYFF rehashed a film that had premiered a couple weeks earlier in Toronto, Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young. Personally, I was disappointed because it isn’t a film I’d pay $20 for, but I can only imagine the disappointment by the industry and press folks who attended since many of them we’re likely at the screening up north. All that being said, While We’re Young was a highly enjoyable film that may polarize audiences due to its drastic plot change halfway through the film.
Ben Stiller plays Josh, a filmmaker who has been working on a documentary for 10 years and can’t seem to finish it, using that as his excuse for never venturing out and taking trips with his loving wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts). Since they can’t have a baby, and then decide they don’t want one, Josh and Cornelia find themselves as outcasts from the rest of their friends. When Josh meets Jamie (Adam Driver), an aspiring documentarian, and his wife Darby (Amanda Seyfried), he becomes enthralled in their free-spirited and hipster lifestyle. Josh and Cornelia begin to hang out with the couple and it helps to loosen up their rather boring lives while giving Josh an opportunity to mentor someone that seems to truly believe in the quality of Josh’s work.
First and foremost, this movie was very entertaining and the first half of the movie was actually pretty damn hilarious. I’ve never been one for Baumbach’s dry sense of humor but While We’re Young deviates from that path substantially and you can see he’s having fun dabbling in mainstream indies. In fact, you can tell everyone is having a good time making this movie and that’s why it ends up being such a pleasant watch, for the first half, but more on that in the next paragraph. You’ve got older characters doing random hipster things to try and jumpstart their plateaued and content lives, it’s great. Also, I thought the writing was great and the performances were solid. Adam Driver is becoming a leading man and you can see by his crafty performance in this film exactly why that is. He easily holds his own against a typical Stiller and a rarely comedic these days, but always fantastic, Naomi Watts. Hell, even Adam Horovitz from The Beastie Boys was good. For a majority of this film, everything plays out wonderfully and ends up being a great crowd-pleaser.
As mentioned above, there is a shift in the film. The key issue with While We’re Young is that it suffers an identity crisis. About 60% of the way through the film, the tone and genre take a drastic turn, nearly doing a complete 180. The first part of the film plays out like a highly enjoyable, smart adult comedy that people could relate to, but then there is a shift and things get a little more serious. Josh’s fun time with Jamie and Darby takes a turn, an unexpected one for Josh, when he starts picking up clues as to what his relationship with Jamie is really based on. From that point forward we are no longer watching a comedy, but rather a mystery in which Josh is the investigator trying to unravel Jamie’s big plan. Throw in some domestic turmoil with Cornelia and you’ve got a mysterious drama all of a sudden. Like I said, a complete change in tone. I sort of enjoyed the transition as it kept me invested in the film and proved my hunch somewhat correct, but it still had some fun twists and doesn’t end the way most mysteries traditionally do. In fact, that’s why I liked the change because it felt honest and real, the way life generally plays out.
From a wide audience perspective, While We’re Young is Noah Baumbach’s most accessible and entertaining film to date. The humor isn’t dry, the ideas are clear, but the film doesn’t dumb itself down the way many wide release-type films tend to do. This is an adult comedic drama with a lot going for it, the only problem people will have is when it goes through the complete genre shift, other than that it’s a solid film and my favorite of his thus far.
Rating: Baumbach’s most accessible film to date loses its footing when it decides to shift genres (7/10)
Recent Comments