While We're Young

“For the first time, I didn’t feel like a child imitating an adult.” With While We're Young, writer-director Noah Baumbach bridges the gap between his recent portraits of middle-aged malaise (Greenberg) and twenty-something troubles (Frances Ha).

Forty-something married couple Josh and Cornelia (Stiller and Watts), both involved in the documentary filmmaking world, see their lives upturned when a disarming young couple (Driver and Seyfried) enter their lives, one of whom is an aspiring documentarian. Josh, in particular, is invigorated by Driver’s Jamie and his loose lifestyle, but intergenerational tension eventually rears its insecure head.

Baumbach’s cast are all on great form, with Watts showing an unexpected knack for physical comedy, but special mention must be given to Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz as one half of a new parent couple, troubled by Josh and Cornelia’s new friends.

This is Baumbach’s broadest comedy to date and some of its sillier tangents don’t always hit, but when fully firing, its barbed one-liners are often spectacular. And, with any luck, it might kill off the fedora. [Josh Slater-Williams]