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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.

I saw the trailers for this, thought it looked funny and i like Stiller so gave it a whirl. What a mistake! This is not the comedy the trailers made it out to be, they show the best bits and when it came to watching the whole film it fell flat. This film was trying to be an intellectual dark comedy, maybe in the vein of Woody Allen but lacked the style, sophistication and plot. The mid life crisis thing, done many times before but better, the role reversal with the oldies doing the social media thing and the younger couple living like hippie bohemians felt like an attempt to be clever but just didn't feel real. The whole moral conscience thing Stiller had was muddled because of the way the plot didn't really make out that anyone had done anything very much wrong. This was deliberate but made the whole morality issue just too subtle for the audience to care. At the end i couldn't care less whether they had a baby together or not and found it all very irritating. I know it was supposed to be allegorical and therefore clever but to me at least it was just badly done and a bit pretentious.

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.

Josh (Ben Stiller) is a documentary filmmaker at a crossroads in his career after having made a good debut feature. His wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) is a producer with a famous father as a documentary filmmaker (Charles Grodin). Now crawling towards middle age, the couple seem unfulfilled somewhat, as they are unable to have a child, unlike most of their close friends.

Enter tyro filmmaker Jamie Fletcher (Adam Driver) and his girlfriend Darby (Amanda Seyfried), two twentysomethings who not only appear full of life, but seem willing to look up to Josh as an example of a competent filmmaker. Jamie embarks on his career, and never looks back.

Noah Baumbach's film has strong echoes of ALL ABOUT EVE, with the scheming Jamie trying every trick in the book to advance himself at Josh's expense, while pretending to be friendly. Yet WHILE WE'RE YOUNG manages to make some important points about the angst associated with middle age: Josh wants to be young once more, and is prepared to ape Jamie's mode of dress, as well as trying to enjoy the youngsters' leisure pursuits. Neither prove very satisfying for the older filmmaker, and in the end he comes to acknowledge the fact of growing old.

Yet Baumbach also has some trenchant points to make about the documentary filmmaker's art. Do they exist to record life around them - as Leslie (Grodin) claims in a climactic speech, or do they cut corners and fabricate life in search of a good story? What is a "good" story anyway? The film has great fun skewering some of Josh's more pretentious flights of fancy as he struggles to finish a six and a half hour documentary that has already taken him ten years. He has written something far too long and boring (it's clear that Baumbach would never be a fan of the work of Claude Lanzmann, whose SHOAH lasts almost the same length of time).

Yet Baumbach never lets the action get too serious. The script is full of witty lines, and the performances are cleverly drawn. The New York locations also provide an effective backdrop to the action, with the seedy filmmakers' studios contrasting with the opulence of Lincoln Center.

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