'While We're Young' -- Gen-Xers vs. Millennials

We saw 'While We're Young' last Friday afternoon.  The movie -- written, directed, and produced by Noah Baumbach -- stars Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts.

Banner for 'While We're Young'

Stiller plays Josh, a documentary filmmaker in his mid-40's who has been struggling to complete a sprawling, unfocused film for the last 10 years.  Watts plays his wife, Cornelia, who produces documentaries including those of her father (played by Charles Grodin) but not those of her husband.  Cornelia has had two miscarriages and Josh and Cornelia have given up on having a family.  Their best friends (Maria Dizzia and Adam Horovitz) have just had their first child.

Josh meets a young couple -- Darby and Jamie (Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver) -- at an adult education class he teaches on film making.  Darby makes artisanal ice cream and Jamie is an aspiring documentarian.  Josh and Cornelia start hanging out with Jamie and Darby.  As they begin to absorb the millennial culture of their new young friends they grow more distant from their gen-X friends.  Things turn disastrous when Josh discovers that Jamie is succeeding with his own documentary while Josh continues to flounder with his.

This movie about movie making needs to be a better movie.  'While We're Young' is just a so-so movie.  The plot founders on set pieces -- like the ayahuasca ceremony -- and cute montages that slow its momentum.  The information provided about Josh's documentary is confused and diffuse.  The New York City sites are not well-defined or integrated into the story.  The editing is sometimes abrupt and choppy.  Darby and Jamie as portrayed by Seyfried and Driver are not sufficiently magnetic to justify Josh and Cornelia's fascination with them.  Stiller and Watts are effective as reluctant gen-Xers pining for perpetual youth and Grodin is wonderful as the grouchy boomer -- but good acting does not automatically equal good filmmaking.     

Thoughts on the movie 'Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)'

Last Friday afternoon we went to see 'Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)' the new movie co-written, produced and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu.

Movie poster for 'Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)'

The movie stars Michael Keaton as Riggan Thomson, a former action movie hero whose primary claim to notoriety is starring in a 3-picture superhero franchise, 'Birdman', nearly 20 years earlier.  Riggan is the writer, director, co-producer and star of a play slated for Broadway, 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Love', based on a Raymond Carver short story.  Riggan's co-producer and best friend is Jake (Zach Galifianakis) and his go-fer is his daughter Samantha (Emma Stone).   The play seems to be a 4-character drama that also features Lesley (Naomi Watts), Riggan's girlfriend Laura (Andrea Riseborough) and Mike (Edward Norton), a last minute replacement for an injured actor.

The director keeps the movie bouncing between reality, staged reality, and utter fantasy -- as Birdman and Carver encroach on Riggan's sanity.  The performances from the entire cast are uniformly excellent.  In addition to Keaton I would single out Zach Galifianakis and Emma Stone for special mention.  This story takes place at the junction where aspirations collide with reality -- tectonic plates that can crush a fragile soul -- or set it free.  Go see it if you love New York, if you love the Broadway theater, if you dare to dream.  It will make you laugh and make you care.