In Noah Baumbach's film Young, Ben Stiller plays Josh, 49, while Naomi Watts plays his wife Cornelia, 46. Age matters because it's a sad film about what Henry James calls middle age, or "a country that has lost its freshness." Josh, as a filmmaker, spent a full eight years making a documentary. "I was preoccupied with this film. He said. Cornelia lives in New York, where her father is a famous documentary filmmaker. The two have no children, and life is not interesting.
When they meet another couple, life begins to ripple. The appearance of the fresh hipster Jamie is eye-catching. "We exchanged vows to an empty water tower in Haarlem." Jamie said. He is also a documentary filmmaker, while Darby, who has a college degree, milks cows and makes ice cream. They were all keen on cycling, and of course, from a beautiful montage clip we learned that the house they lived in had a strong retro vibe, with typewriters and board games. "It's like my collection, except that mine is a CD." Josh looked in awe at Jamie's collection of Jamie's record of Narima and said. What infuriated Josh was that Jamie not only reminded him of his youthful self, but also gave him a stupid idea: Jamie made him wonder how he could become the same person again.
The plot development that follows tends to be complex, basically about the moral code of documentary filming. Jamie assists Josh, but tricks Josh between the legs. The conflict culminates in Lincoln Center, where an honor banquet is being held for Cornelia's father, who will deliver a speech about how the documentary presents the truth.
Charles Grodin's performance is as pleasant as ever, but even so, we can't help but wonder what it means to illustrate the film's struggles with facts and illusions in a film that has become deeply narcissistic. Why not talk about Darby's Ice Cream? Why not start a story around that? Maybe it makes more sense.
Baumbach doesn't like to play cards according to common sense, and he is good at bridging the gap between conflict and true intention. After the farce, Josh and Cornelia enjoy a bottle of whiskey, and his bitterness and grievances are hard to describe. The same expression is also expressed in the couple dressed in white, vomiting while banging on tin, trying to cleanse their souls, all too much, only Vangelis's music can lift the mood. Music always plays an integral role in Baumbach's films, such as 2012's Frances Ha or Cornelia's hip-hop dance class. Naomi Watts is so good at interpreting tragic characters that you may have forgotten that she can also be funny. The most interesting thing is to say the song "Eye of the Tiger" when you hear the song "Eye of the Tiger": "I remember when this song was abandoned." ”
In such a film that should be the most gag since Baumbach's first film "Twenty Years of Madness", this is a very good line. But at the same time, it's a very profound line, and you can feel Josh gradually realizing that he is being manipulated by Jamie and being led by the nose. This is also what I appreciate about "When I Was Young", the director is not obsessed with the past, blindly pursuing the vanishing ability. The hat is one of the clues.
When Stiller puts on a narrow-edged fedora hat, he's imitating Dreifer, who is like the nasty guy played in Frances Ha. It's just that in that film, Dreifer is bohemian, and in "Young", the character of Jamie is still polite at times, but he gradually reveals his vanity nature, maybe you like the playfulness and ease of "Frances Ha", but the honesty shown by Josh and Cornelia in "Young" in the process of trying to fight for more is still very touching. This is one of the rare benefits of getting older: maybe you can finally distinguish between lifestyle and life.