While We're Young (2015)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Crappy film

Brilliant and touching

A Disappointing Continuation

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.

For the first half of this film, I thought it was pretty typical Baumbach: a collection of amusing moments and characters that occasionally stumbled into plot. But it became something more. It became a reflection (on aging, on perspective, on authenticity), but - more importantly - it became a story.

The movie surprised me. I was not expecting the plot to take the turn it does. The acting is good, though I liked Ben Stiller and Adam Driver's performance way more than their feminine counterparts. The strange friendship between these two men and, particularly, the keen depiction of Josh's spiritual "infatuation" for Jamie (a character you won't easily forget) was among the things I liked best. There is something terribly cruel about the entire story, and the film is quite effective at striking more than one sore point. Not a masterpiece, but a clever movie- one the like I would see twice. What I can say is that the ending really did not convince me. I would have liked to see how plot could be developed and made more complex and, to be honest, less banal. After almost two hours of movie, I expect the story to reach a final compromise between the starting point and all the assessments either verified or countered by the events the spectator has witnessed. Instead, the characters have been only partially transformed by their experience: let us say that, if the goal of a story is to bring a character from A to D passing through B and C, it seems to me D is a mere copy of, say, B. On the other hand, the movie tells a lot about acceptance and humility: if regarded under this specific point of view, even a not completely satisfying ending acquires its sense, no matter how bittersweet is the impression the movie leaves you with.

Growing up never felt so exhausting like it is depicted in this. It still feels fresh and has a lot of neat ideas. At least at the beginning, when we get behind what the main characters are feeling. Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts are amazing in their depiction of a couple with more than just one issue, even if they're not admitting to any of them. There's things you have to accept (like your body getting older and weaker for example, even if the mind doesn't see it that way) and others you have to learn to live with.But the movie is not contempt to just deal with those issues, but also a relationship with a younger couple. Something that opens up a new box of problems, but also a new perspective if you will. The ending is a bit messy, but the actors are saving it from itself (the script isn't that bad either)