#22 WHILE WE'RE YOUNG

#22 WHILE WE'RE YOUNG (09/04/15)

Starring Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried and Charles Grodin. Written and directed by Noah Baumbach. 97 minutes long.

Judd Aptoad could learn a thing or two from Baumbach, compare this to his vile, About 40 and see which one feels more believable, plausable and enjoyable.

Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts are Josh and Cornelia, a married, childless couple, in their 40's,  the only ones left in their friendship circle without children. Josh is a writer's-blocked documentary film-maker who's been struggling for the past 10 years to finish off his next film, Cornelia is a producer and the daughter of a famous documentary film maker, Leslie Breitbart, Charles Grodin, with whom Josh has issues. Into their lives comes 20-something, free-spirits Jamie and Darby, he's another another documentary film-maker, the next hottest thing, and she's his ice-cream making wife. Played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. Charming, ego-massaging, seductive and fawning, it's not long before Josh and Cornelia have fallen for their charms and reliving their youth vicariously through the antics of Jamie and Darby along the way rediscovering their own creative juices and drives and kick-starting their stalled lives. But when Josh begins to realise that Jamie's motives might be far more mercenary that he'd first suspected and that he's being used as a stepping stone by Jamie to fame and success, he struggles to come to terms with his stalled life.

A dry, slow-burn, witty and small film, this is perhaps Ben Stiller's best film since Tropic Thunder. With a lovely soundtrack and great performances this was a deeply satisfying film and thoroughly well worth watching. The easy chemistry between Stiller and Watts makes their relationship seem all too real and there's a lovely choreographed sequence as the pair get ready for bed that's so beautifully underplayed that you might not notice it, but it says more than a page of pithy dialogue could ever do, plus there's an explosive argument at a party that seems so real, I would have sworn that Noah taped one of mine.

Catch it if you still can.

8/10