Such a frustrating disappointment

Simply A Masterpiece

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

I am cautiously biased about hipsters. Biased in the sense that many of them are self-absorbed and over-idealistic. But, I must admit, I've had memorable, life-changing experiences with kind-spirited hipsters. The kind like Jamie and Darby. I've known them, I've met them. In high school, in college and in the workplace. Those that welcome you into their lives selflessly and show you what it means to live freely and enjoy all the different eccentricities of life.While We're Young is a film that is just as complimentary and critical about hipsters. Josh and Cornelia are sent on an enchanting journey. Through street beaches and homemade ice-cream pints, they find what it means to truly loosen up and try new things. That is until they find that they've been set so loose that Jamie is trying to get one over on them. I wouldn't call Jamie a villain and I'm not sure if Noah Baumbach would either. He is a complicated companion as one would be if you were to really let a total stranger into your heart as Josh does. Likely, they will do things that disappoint you. But While We're Young ponders much more about our own quality of life. Baumbach is searching for that rare balance between freedom and rigid order and showing us how it can be found.Needless to say, as laid back as this film is, it's deep and fascinating in all the right ways. I found myself on the verge of adoring everything about While We're Young.

While We're YoungAs Ben and Noami struggles keeping up with the people of their age, there is an unsatisfied tone from the first sequence of the movie which stays with the audience the whole way and surprisingly this helps connecting it. While We're Young is one of the finest fresh baked idea coming from Noah and he uses it well depicting generations through a common media and its amusing perspectives that offers us these little chuckles in this smart drama. The resemblance towards Ben's character speaks itself of his work along with such a great cast; Noami and Adam are brilliant too. A light drama which does not work on a larger margin to make your heart pump faster but it sure is intriguing enough to keep you invested in it for 97 minutes.

I'm not sure about the niche or sub-category occupied by Noah Baumbach in indie cinema, but I have liked most of the films he has been involved in, either as a director (The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha) or as a screenwriter (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Fantastic Mr. Fox). In While We're Young, Baumbach occupies both positions, and I enjoyed the fascinating tour he offers us through the neurosis and internal turbulence from various picturesque characters on different stages of their lives very much. The clash between "hipsters" and "Gen-X" suggests the fact that While We're Young is a satire of the clichés which identify those social groups, one of them rising, and the other one, on its road to obsolescence... or at least passive complacency. And, effectively, there are some satire moments about the habits and affectations from both generations; but beyond those humorous comparisons, Baumbach built sincere and realistic characters who develop endearing connections with each other. The friendship between the young couple and the mature one seems strange on the beginning, but we eventually realize that both possess qualities complementing their respective emotional needs. The mature couple has experience and a better knowledge of the "real world", while the young one enjoy the energy of youth and isn't tied to a complex net of social or economic obligations, something which brings them an degree of freedom that is attractive for their mature friends. In summary, I found While We're Young an excellent character study with perfect performances from the whole cast, and with an interesting "personal crisis" premise solidly executed by Baumbach's melancholic sensibility. I liked this film very much, but I know that While We're Young has generally not found a good answer from critics and the general audience. Anyway, I would personally recommend it with enthusiasm, with the warning that it isn't a traditional Ben Stiller comedy. Sure, there's pretty much humor in the screenplay and the performances, but they never seek peals of laughter, but the astute observation of absurd or incongruent details which keep us amused while simultaneously leaving us thinking. In other words, don't expect the Stiller from Night at the Museum, but the one from Greenberg (which was curiously also written and directed by Baumbach). And don't expect a "feel good" ending either, but a "feel weird" one. That final scene is perfect for me to answer the eternal question "Why don't you have any children?".

I'm reading all these reviews that are a bit negative. I just want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed While We're Young. My explanation for the difference in opinion would have to be something to do with taste. I thought the film was well structured. Also I really felt a filmmaker behind the film who enjoyed the art of film. Further I thought there were really a lot of good jokes in this film. Some very subtle but therefore all the more funny to me. And I can only imagine that some people just can't really connect with maybe, Noah Baumbach as a person and therefore his character in the film. I don't know, people are different. Maybe I'm wrong....