Kissing Adam Driver

Adam Driver by Noah Baumbach

How did I not notice before today that even in fake band pics, Stoney is wearing his flower jacket? (And they spelled RKCNDY wrong)

While We're Young (2014)

Director: Noah Baumbach

Cinematographer: Sam Levy

Ad-Rock at NYC premiere of 'While We're Young,' March 23, 2015

(Photo by Gilbert Carrasquillo/FilmMagic)

Going into While We're Young I was prepared for a Noah Baumbach film I didn't like. Heck, no one in it gets divorced til the third act, and the writing is devoid of that sharpness that makes his worst film (Greenberg) still good enough for me to like despite its problems. And yet, by the time the credits rolled, I found that I enjoyed this installment in the Noah Baumbach Divorce Movie Saga.

I've never not been an old man at heart, and so I've always considered my distaste for the hipsters to be the consequence of some sort of inner conservatism or whatnot. Though I enjoy Portlandia, the cultural context belongs to the cousins who I watched match trilbies with tube socks and drink horchata. Those hipsters have grown up now, and, though they continue gentrifying neighborhoods that I want to park cars on my front lawn in (they've even priced me out of all the good E30s I'd park on said lawn), they've aged out of relevance alongside their Harry Potter tattoos.

While We're Young brings it all back, reminding me that my Hipster wrath came from sheer annoyance. These people are insufferable, and their impact on graphic tees alone should be ruled a cultural disaster. These are the people that popularized the stomp clap genre and even still have antique stores trying to sell me scratched Bowie records for $25. For all the film's carrying on over 40something filmmaker neuroses, Baumbach got one thing right: Hipsters have and always will sorta suck. Fleet foxes is good, though.

I didn't enjoy this film at the jump. Baumbach's direction lacked some of the pizzazz I normally expect in his movies, and having to endure the autobiographical self-obsessions of Baumbach's tortured writer/filmmaker/storyteller/artist etc. protagonist gets old after the fourth film. We get it, you have a messed up relationship with personal and professional success. Have you tried writing about Barbies?

Yet by the last third of the film, I was hooked. Noah Baumbach, and I write this while gritting my teeth, knows how to make a sophisticated movie, and this was a solid entry into his filmography. The filmmaking was not understated, but it was definitely sophisticated in a way that I could appreciate. I'll call this a win for Noah.

☁️🌊🌎

What about Jacques LeGris?

Noah Baumbach, {2014} While We're Young

While We're Young: Directed by Noah Baumbach. With Naomi Watts, Ben Stiller, Maria Dizzia, Adam Horovitz. A middle-aged couple's career and marriage are overturned when a disarming young couple enters their lives.

Jhené Aiko - While We're Young (Official Video)

Adam as Jamie Massey. He should wear more hats like this. And I love his ear poking through his hair.

Second time for this. Lovely, warm cast and a thoughtful approach to the fear of aging and the attraction of those still finding their feet, they may be a tad pretentious but hey, they are cool and trendy and you want to recapture your youth so you think you can do so by being in their orbit. In reality, you can't. Your youthful shine is gone. Best thing is to be differently cool and embrace your wisdom and find a new way of being. Only downside to the film is the need for there to be a plot. I liked the dynamic of Stiller wanting to be like Driver and I think they could have had the confidence for that to be enough, they didn't have to make Driver a sleaze. Enough that Stiller should have just wised up. Still, lovely and strong on generational envy.