WHILE WE’RE YOUNG

US, 2014, 97 minutes, Colour.
Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, Maria Dizzia, Adam Horowitz, Charles Grodin, Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Yarrow.
Directed by Noah Baumbach.

It would be very interesting to interview audiences as they came out from the screening of this film.

While the principal focus is on a married couple in their 40s, used to life, regretting that they had no children even though they had tried, would the 40s and overs identify with the couple, criticise them, learn from their experience throughout the film? It is a look at these two in comparison with a couple who is 25. If those coming out of the cinema were in their 20s, how would they react to the couple who are their peers, their attitudes towards life, their attitudes towards their elders, their reaction to living in a world of technology, often avoiding it and liking what is natural and real. And for those who are of older, there is veteran actor, Charles Grodin, playing a documentary filmmaker in his 70s.

For just over ten years, Noah Baumbach has been writing and directing films which try to go beneath their surfaces. He was particularly successful in 2006 with his family study, The Squid and the Whale. There was the portrait of people assembling for Margot at the Wedding, then the story of a middle-aged man trying to find his place in life, Greenburg, and after that the more light-hearted portrait of a young woman trying to find her place, Frances Ha.

He opens the film with quotes from Ibsen, The Master Builder, and opening the doors to the younger generation.

Here we are introduced to Josh and Cornelia, very fine performances from Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts. Their peers and friends had become preoccupied with young children, which tends to alienate Josh and Cornelia who have experienced miscarriages. Josh is lecturing on documentary film when he encounters a young couple, Jamie and Darby (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried), in their midtwenties, he an enthusiastic documentary maker, she a maker of ice cream. They keep inviting the older couple out, taking Cornelia to Hip-hop lessons, Jamie getting Josh involved in his experimental documentary, and their both agreeing to attend to a New Age mescaline-meditation-vomiting-out-of-old-attitudes weekend.

The experience has a transforming effect on the older couple, going back almost 20 years to what it was like when they were young, the experience re-invigorating them but puzzling peer friends. The experience also seen seems to transform of the younger couple, with Jamie becoming very involved in his documentary, Josh acting as cameraman, letting Jamie interview the elderly guru from his own film (played by Peter Yarrow, the Peter in Peter, Paul, Mary). There is a particularly strong sequence where an Afghanistan veteran (Brady Corbett) who has attempted to kill himself is interviewed for the documentary.

Just as the audience may be feeling really satisfied, or perhaps wondering, there are shifts in the revelations of characters and audience emotional response, everybody not quite being actually what they seem. But is it all Josh’s problem – he is rather paranoid, about his documentary, about his father-in-law, about his reputation. And is Jamie trying to exploit Josh? And how will Cornelia ultimately deal with all the changes and challenges?

There are a lot of nice things going on despite the difficulties, and there is a pleasantly hopeful ending.

1. The response of different age groups? In the 20s? In their 40s? Older?

2. The director, his body of work, sardonic surfaces, the main themes, taking audiences deeper?

3. New York City, the apartments, the effect, the cafes, interviews, documentary filmmaking, the focus on babies, the New Age weekend? New York life?

4. The range of songs, the classical music?

5. The end, the graffiti of the title and its focus?

6. Josh and Cornelia, their age, backgrounds, their friends with their baby, the difficulties for conception, their attempts? Their interests and focus? Cornelia with the mothers and the singing with the children? Cornelia getting? Not invited to their friends party, but staying and is? The characters – and the critique?

7. Josh and Cornelia at home, Josh lecturing on documentaries, his theoretical language and approach, his film, 10 years, his associate editor, not paying him? The footage and the interviews? His father-in-law and his influence? Josh and his hostility, a touch paranoid about criticism?

8. Jamie and Darby, at the lecture, stopping to talk, words of admiration, inviting Josh to eat, the discussions, the visits, vinyl disks? People in their mid-twenties, nice manner, the bikes, Jamie getting Josh a hat? The effect on Josh and on Cornelia?

9. Darby and Cornelia, discussion about babies, going to the hip-hop lesson, their friendship?

10. Josh, his film, going to see his father-in-law, watching the footage, his comments?

11. Jamie, his film, and admiring Josh’s first film, wanting help, the story, the Facebook connection, singling out Kent, communication, arrival at the house, his wife and her reaction? The children? Afghanistan, slitting his wrists, the interview? Josh filming, on Jamie’s face as he told the story about his mother’s death?

12. The New Age weekend, the and his talk, the range of people present, the woman discussing with Josh, the drugs, the trances, vomiting attitudes? Cornelia kissing Jamie, thinking it was Josh?

13. Jamie and Darby, her making the ice cream, her friendship Kent, making the contact, the attraction to other men, confiding in Cornelia, in Josh, her leaving?

14. Josh is editor and his comments, not being paid, liking working with Jamie, more work with Josh? Editing out material?

15. The clash between Josh and Cornelia, swearing at each other, his not coming home?

16. The tribute for Leslie, the speeches, the preparation, Cornelia present, Leslie’s speech, explanations about documentaries, about truth?

17. Josh, the rollerblades, the subway, confronting Jamie, going to the table, hysterical, wanting Jamie to confess? The issue of authenticity in
documentaries, contrived documentaries, emotional?

18. One year passing, the possibility of adoption, their friends again?

19. The surface, comedy, challenge, going deeper, audiences identifying with the characters and their crises?