Age Old Questions, Rehashed
April 10, 2015
While We’re Young (2015).
D/W: Noah Baumbach. DP: Sam Levy. Starring: Ben Stiller/Naomi Watts/Adam Driver/Amanda Seyfried/Maria Dizzia/Adam Horovitz/Charles Grodin/Matthew Maher/Dree Hemingway/Brady Corbet.
Indie cinema darling Noah Baumbach’s new film, While We’re Young, is a charming yet uneven exploration of the generational gap between the 40s and the 20s. Lacking the kinetic energy that made his 2012 film Frances Ha memorable, Baumbach falters here in his new “little” movie.
While We’re Young centers on 40s aged couple Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) whose best friends have just had a baby. Feeling childless and antsy about their marital routine they spontaneously agree to have dinner with a young couple you are auditing Josh’s continuing education class on documentary. This soon leads to new friendships and cliched, yet charming scenes of the older couple feeling, well old, and the younger couple looking, well fresh.
While We’re Young is almost two films in one. The first half is mostly similar to the trailer as it chronicles the budding friendship between the different generations of couples. All the laughs are in this half with the latter part not really about the disillusionment with the younger generation, but about the manipulation experienced by Stiller’s Josh. As Josh helps young Jamie (Adam Driver) with his own documentary truths come to light that the film starts to hammer into you rather like a persistent woodpecker.
What is ultimately fun about the film is Driver’s performance as New York egotistical hipster Jamie and his “putting Baby in the corner” act with Amanda Seyfriend’s Darby. The grass is always greener mentality is clearly the driving force of the film, but Baumbach encourages it to go even further into questions of integrity, honesty, and partnership. Watts and Stiller have decent chemistry with each other and the growing pains of their relationship, along with the younger couple, encourages the audience to find their own place in the film. A nice sentiment, but it cannot sustain While We’re Young past its preliminary gimmicks.
Get Thee to a Theater!
January 6, 2015
Birdman (2014).
D: Alejandro González Iñárritu. DP: Emmanuel Lubezki. W: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris & Armando Bo. Starring: Michael Keaton/Naomi Watts/Emma Stone/Edward Norton/Andrea Riseborough/Zach Galifianakis/Amy Ryan/Merrit Wever/Lindsay Duncan.
Leading a formidable and competitive awards season is the much talked about Birdman. Helmed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (2003’s 21 Grams, 2006’s Babel, 2010’s Biutiful), Birdman is a glorious baptism in cinema.
Haunted by his previous commercial comic book film success, Riggan Thomas (ironically played by Batman graduate Michael Keaton) attempts to open a play on Broadway. Adapted, directed, and acted by Keaton’s Riggan the financial and emotional stress of the venture creeps in on him along with the drama that always escalates in the world backstage. But the backstage plot is merely a way to enter the actor’s psychosis that is attempting to face his failures at fatherhood, disconnection with his career, and his ultimate fears.
Keaton is at his best here. Last seen for me in this year’s forgettable Robocop, his washed up Riggan is as real as they get. Iñárritu’s use of long takes and roaming cameras does not leave a lot of room for actors to hide anything. Keaton literally and emotionally bares it all, giving Riggan’s haggard life emotional resonance and a core that allows you to root for him despite it all. Riggan is also plagued by hearing the ghost of his past, a Birdman voice that badgers and sometimes champions him. A difficult conceit to pull off, but Keaton makes it work for laughs and for tears.
Emma Stone plays Keaton’s troubled daughter Sam. Finally her pale skinniness and fretful saucer eyes fit into the role she is playing. She holds her own amidst veterans and her chemistry with Edward Norton is on point. Norton’s Mike is deliciously depraved here and he is excellent sparring partner for Keaton. Regardless if the rumors of this performance being a take on himself as a ‘difficult’ actor, his physicality lifts the script off the page. Not to be forgotten as usual, Naomi Watts brings her shimmer to grateful Broadway newcomer, Lesley. Other than a silly dressing room scene, she’s great. Zach Galifianakis and Amy Ryan also bring in excellent supporting roles that ground Birdman.
Birdman‘s sound editing and score are exceptional (score by Antonio Sanchez). The drum solos alone are fabulous and harken back to another excellent film of this year, Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash. Emmanuel Lubezki’s camera work is exuberant, New York City looks glamorous and dirty all at the same time. The long takes allow the story to breathe and provides a great pacing to the film so that when cuts do come they re-energize you. Ultimately, Birdman is not to be missed and for a story about a washed up actor that is even more astounding.