While We're Young

Courtesy of A24 Films and Scott Rudin Productions

In a strange twist on the classic narrative that "Amadeus" exposed, Noah Baumbach presents a comparison between the nostalgia of the old, and the appropriation of it by the young. As usual Baumbach touches upon a cultural touchstone in our present culture, which is whether to live authentically and be mediocre, or live a life based in aesthetics and remain false to yourself. Never has the "hipster culture" been better eviscerated than in this whip-smart satire.

 Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts portray a married couple who work in the field of documentary film. While Stiller has been working on the same, overworked film for ten years, Watts is trying to work through her own insecurities and disdain for a provincial life. When they meet a young married couple, their lives change irrevocably. A great montage shows an impressive spontaneity in the lives of this couple (played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) while their older counterparts rely on today's technology and all its conventions. Stiller and Watts find their friends' actions to be authentic, quaint, even inspiring. Everyone, at some point, has met people who inspire them to live lives they cannot attain. If that weren't true we wouldn't have Instagram, Pinterest, or Twitter.

 What's so amazing about this film is that it champions living your truest self, whatever that might mean. As someone who is constantly paralyzed by what could be, rather than what's happening in real time, this felt like an eye opening and persuasive film. Besides that it's really funny. Stiller's antics throughout leads you to believe something sinister is bubbling under the surface while keeping the story light. It's a film of large tradeoffs, but with little consequence, and while most people disdain these kinds of films, it felt refreshing to see realism on the screen. This is a film that is very much of the moment, inspiring and yet funny, hard to pull off even for a seasoned director like Baumbach.