★★½
Starring Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried
2015 / 97 Minutes / A24
Here’s is the perfect example of a movie that starts off strong and then completely falls apart into a ridiculous mess in the last act. Why couldn’t this movie have continued it’s course of being interesting and intelligent. Instead it veers off and falls into what feels more like mainstream Ben Stiller comedy territory.
The story was interesting and I really got into the idea of an older couple becoming friends with this younger more hip couple. There was a great story there! There could have been so much more they could have done with that. Somehow it all falls apart into a predictable (yes you kind of see it crumbling midway) ridiculous last act that doesn’t work and feels more like the ending of a bad romantic comedy. It goes exactly where you think it’s going to go and it’s not what I wanted. The generation differences between these people were interesting and funny and that’s what was working.
Noah Baumbach has wrote and directed some great movies – Frances Ha, Margot at the Wedding, The Squid & The Whale. Sadly While We’re Young doesn’t fall anywhere close to those ones. I wasn’t a fan of Greenberg either, maybe it’s the combination of Baumbach and Stiller that isn’t working for me.
Grade C-
