Q: So much of the film is about misunderstandings. You can try anything, and thatâs a great gift when youâre doing a comedy. They create an atmosphere where youâre expected to embarrass yourself. It was good I had Ben to lead the direction âcause, as you all know, he goes for it. So, that was a definite challenge for me. But, on the day, youâve just got to hope youâre going to be funny, and just be prepared to go for it and really push the envelope and improv, or do whatever it takes. With drama, you can really develop your character over a course of time, and you know what you want to achieve when youâre making the film. But, Iâve got to tell you, you canât really prepare to be funny. Hollywood and you want to do a comedy, who better to do it with than the Farrellys. I had never really done comedy before, so I was totally game. Michelle: Itâs really challenging to play comedy. Q: Which is easier for you to play, a comedic role like this, or a dramatic role like that? I like to be with you (she says to Bobby Farrelly). I didnât know which brothers to go with (the Farrellys or the Afflecks). It's not his best, but doesn't fall far from his gold standard (The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha).Michelle: Exactly. Baumbach drives this home with his usual insightful wit and in-the-moment camerawork. Both of them - young and young at heart - want what the other has, however, and each for selfish and ulterior motives. Astute and unsettlingly honest observations get leveled by peers their own age as Stiller and Watts envy the perpetual motion and spontaneity of modern 20-somethings as well as their unbridled passion for vintage items (i.e., "everything that we threw away"). It's smart if you fall outside of the age pools depicted here and it smarts if you fall within, especially if you're approaching the big Four Oh from either direction. In this R-rated comedy from Noah Baumbach (Margot at the Wedding, Greenberg), a middle-aged couple's (Stiller, Watts) career and marriage get overturned when a disarming young couple (Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried) enters their lives. In fact, it's honest and very human-one of the many truisms emerging here we hate to admit. It's a startling revelation that's not a revelation. One 40-something character - so genuinely tough on Stiller's new choice of friends at the outset - confesses that, despite admitting that having a baby imbues you with a deep-seeded love, the most important person in his life remains himself. In fact, the film hands out some winning Reality Bytes to this twosome and anyone who pines for their younger days. Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, however, hilariously fall into this trap in an on-the-nose film that's deeper and more convoluted than at first glance. Peter Pan never grew up, but - if he did - he hopefully wouldn't emulate Brooklyn hipsters. Hitting Generation X right in their Millennials, Noah Baumbach's latest comedy hilariously asks Y of Middle Age as it winningly straddles the generational divide. Overall, while not all that profound, Baumbach proves to be an excellent story-teller and fascinating artist. 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. 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.īen 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. 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. A middle-aged couple befriends a younger couple and embarks on a documentary project.
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