Gefühlt Mitte Zwanzig

This film tells the story of a documentary filmmaker who has had success but struggles to finish his new documentary. He meets a young and energetic couple who live life colourfully, and he gets infected by their unending enthusiasm.

"While We're Young" starts off very strong, with Josh and Cornelia having a sort of midlife crisis. Passion dwindles from their lives, and they get locked into their comfort zone. The couple is charming and infectiously happy. I think many people could identify with Josh and Cornelia. I certainly could. I was hoping the story of unfold along these lines, but as things go wrong, it seems almost wrong for Josh and Cornelia to rediscover themselves. I think it's a misfired message, and I identify with the story less towards the end. Nonetheless, it's a good film.

While We're Young is mainly about comparing between two current generations. A typical comedy would normally make it a silly opposition about which one is better, but the movie doesn't make that as a conflict at all. The movie is more concerned on how its main characters acknowledge that they're at the point of a mid-life and finding a way ignore that by interacting a younger crowd. It's simply engaging stuff, almost devoid from the common comedy movie formula until the third act went through some climax that feels different from its more sincere setup, but even with that conventional turn, the film continues to be clever and sticks to its whole theme.

It starts with the childless main couple beginning to realize their age and almost makes a big deal about it until they discover how youth today actually live their lives after befriending with a younger couple and try to exchange each other's medium and lifestyle from the time they grew up with. The most typical way to treat this idea is to aim their new behavior for laughs or go against the other generation, but the movie rather takes it simple by just having them tag along with both of their interests. It may not be too sensational, but it gives a pleasantly charming feel within those interactions. There is still a sense of division between the generations, like how their peers couldn't relate to their new appeal. It kind of jokes about how odd cultures have gone, but the movie doesn't want to be too critical about it either and remains understanding both sides, anyway.

There is also a side story that involves their work as filmmakers of documentary and the movie still explores its main idea by showing how even the ethics of their industry have changed. And this leads to a third act that often exists in generic comedies, but the movie doesn't take those sequences as a punchline. Though, most of that part feels like it's shifting into a whole new topic, but as it turns out, it actually tries to build up a more reasonable contrast between the perspectives of the young and the old. When you think it's going to be in a clichéd direction, it's the writing that keeps things authentic. The acting are thoroughly natural on what they do. Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts are as likable as always, while Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried bring the charm in their characters.

While We're Young is pretty likable, even when it leads to a weirdly contrived conclusion, but either way, it still works, thanks to its genuinely charming performances and smart writing that has the right intention. The characters are rather fascinated at these hobbies and things that are popular from each other's generations, than making it a serious competition for themselves. But it still concerns at a person's mindsets and change of attitude due to age, which somehow becomes the actual conflict of the story. In the end, it finds a good heart anyway, and it's quite interesting to just see the distinction, but also the similar appeal between these featured generations.

5/10 might not seem like a good rating, but it's a strong 5. This movie is definitely worth seeing, but only if you're okay with mild disappointments and outdated "we can't be happy without having kids" Disney-like thinking.

Movie does indeed have a good start - Ben Stiller & Naomi Watts play their roles well and make lots of good points of how we can sometimes be unhappy with our past decisions and our lives. Movie also captures well how people change when they grow up; one ends up having kids, another focuses on his/her career or other things.

Sadly "While We're Young" doesn't grasp all that there could've been. The ending leaves you kinda sad/disappointed/with mixed feelings. To put it plainly; it doesn't deliver.

It feels as if we're back in "Greenburg" territory with "While We're Young" made four years later, since we have the same writer and director (Noah Baumbach) and the same lead actor (Ben Stiller) playing a similar central character. This time, Stiller is Josh, married to Cornelia (Naomi Watts), a middle-aged married couple who find themselves hooking up with Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried), a couple in their twenties, who remind the older pair of the freshness and spontaneity of youth while he struggles professionally and she laments their inability to become parents.

The female roles are underwritten and, while Driver is good, this is really Stiller's film. The trouble is that he is such an irritating character, unable to complete a long-running project to produce a boring documentary and foolishly trying to recapture his lost youth. There are some funny scenes and situations, but this is an uneven work with a sequence at a hippy retreat proving particularly silly.

So I get what the film was aiming for, but I've gotta say, I'm incredibly shocked by its critical reception. I don't think it's "bad", really, but just thoroughly mediocre and really obnoxious. I don't know why, but something about it came off so incredibly forced and fake. It has some good acting and none of it is offensive or anything, but something about it annoyed me in a way I can't really pinpoint. I love Naomi Watts, but she was part of the problem. There just wasn't any synchrony between the performers I don't think. Either that or between their performances and the tone the film was aiming for. I'm perplexed because none of it I can really put my finger on, except that there is absolutely nothing of real note or anything that will be memorable even a day after watching it (well, that's not true, since I saw it a day ago). Not worth it