While his latest Ben Stiller-led feature, Greenberg, seemed to only be admired by some, writer-director Noah Baumbach looks to be heading to more crowdpleasing territory with his next feature. Following up his acclaimed Frances Ha, the director premiered While We’re Young at Toronto International Film Festival earlier this fall and ahead of a spring release, the first entertaining trailer has dropped.
We were big fans of it, saying in our review, “Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young is wise, funny, fiercely intelligent and always involving. It’s not just the director’s most complete film — it’s also his best, an even stronger, more ambitious creation than his last Toronto International Film Festival entry, Frances Ha. Here, aided by his most impressive cast to date — Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, Charles Grodin, and Adam “Ad Rock” Horowitz (!) — Baumbach has pulled off something truly impressive. He has made a heartfelt comedy that is as humorous as it is emotionally relatable.” Check out the trailer below.
Aging gracefully is never easy, and it may be worse for artists. Josh Srebnick (Ben Stiller) is a New York documentarian who never quite got his due. As he labours over the umpteenth edit of his cerebral new film, it’s plain that he has hit a creative dry patch. Josh and his wife, Cornelia (Naomi Watts), tried to start a family and were unable — and have decided they’re okay with that. Yet for Josh, there is something still missing.
Enter Jamie (Adam Driver, also appearing at the Festival in Hungry Hearts and This is Where I Leave You) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried), who approach Josh after a class he teaches. A young artist couple, they are spontaneous and untethered, ready to drop everything in pursuit of their next passion — retro board games one day, acquiring a pet chicken the next. For Josh, it’s as if a door has opened back to his youth.
It’s not long before the unhappy fortysomethings Josh and Cornelia throw aside friends their own age — including Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz in a sly supporting role — to trail after these young hipsters who seem so plugged in, so uninhibited, so Brooklyn cool. “Before we met,” Josh admits, “the only two feelings I had left were wistful and disdainful.” But is this new inspiration enough to sustain collaboration with artists twenty years his junior?
While We’re Young opens on March 27th.