MovieChat Forums > While We're Young (2015) Discussion > Pure Hollywood Crap

Pure Hollywood Crap

posted 9 years ago by mzphysfit
8 replies | jump to latest

I just watched this on Netflix and what could have been an interesting movie on ageism was just reduced to a trivial pretentious mess.
First of all Cornelia and Josh are suppose to be in their early 40s and they cast an over 50 year old Ben Stiller who clearly looks over 50. It just shows how Hollywood thinks anyone who is over 30 is "old" so it doesn't matter that Josh looks like he could be Adam's dad.
The fact that Cornelia and Josh are so infatuated by the young hip couple is another oddity. It's like they spotted the Loch Ness Monster instead of hanging out with a couple of fake hipsters. They hung onto ever word they said which was just silly. I'm close in age to the Josh/Cornelia characters and have friends/co workers in their mid late 20s and never have I have been so in awe of something witty that they have said or done.
So when did hip hop dancing become so innovative and cool for the hipster crowd? My mom is 70 and does Zumba, Pound, Belly Dance and Hip Hop classes at her gym. Seriously go to any fitness facility and you will find mainly middle age women shaking it--not so earth shattering. And this supposedly 40 ish couple have no knowledge of hip hop???? Sure you may not listen to it on a regular basis but to really not know what it is when you hear it??? I was waiting for Josh and Cornelia to start saying things like "the Facebook" or "the twitter" other things Hollywood always thinks "older" people say.
My final gripe is this movie was set in New York City! Maybe if it was set in Bumblefuxx Mississippi I may understand some of the disconnect but they made Cornelia and Josh seem like they were dropped into the city from outer space.

[–] Robbmonster 9 years ago

Basically what you're saying is because the film differs from the reality you know, it's 'crap'?

Besides, I thought that was an independent film, nothing at all to do with 'Hollywood'.

Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds

[–] jrhpax 9 years ago

Robbmonster wrote my thought exactly -- it's not a Hollywood movie.

I enjoyed "While We're Young."

My only criticism is that it seemed to borrow a lot from Woody Allen -- but I love Woody's movies. He's not "Hollywood," either.

[–] bruce-129 9 years ago

Yeah, I think the whole movie was a soft from that movie were Woody loses the girl to Alan Alda ... cannot remember the name of it right now, he is making the documentary with "the scholar".

[–] CoolX3 9 years ago

It take about 5 seconds to look up Ben Stiller's age (49 now, 48 when the film was shot). Also takes about 10 seconds to realize that it's an independent movie and doesn't have anything to do with Hollywood.
So solid criticism here, many valid points. I mean, if we ignore facts I guess.

[–] mCihhh 9 years ago

Haha! Exactly. Who cares about facts, when my opinion is always objective.

[–] bruce-129 9 years ago

There is a lot of unpleasantness in this movie, and that is why they probably
hired Ben Stiller ... thinking, and I agree, that he can do that better than just
about any other actor, plus many of his rolls are like that.

I think you may have gotten a bit of what I got from this ... that is why I was
feeling depressed and bothered by this movie so I stopped it yesterday and
finished it today. It made all the difference. It was almost too much to take that
kind of grasping on to youth. That is what Josh and Cornelia were doing ... the
acceptance that they are not kids and that the world is finite - which is maybe
something Jamie understood at a very young age, but it made him shallow and
creepy.

I thought it was a good movie after all, after thinking I was not even going to
finish it.

[–] madmaxmedia 9 years ago

Yeah, but does your 70-year old mom shake it to 'Hit Em Up'?

There's some exaggerations/caricature in the movie to play up the difference between the older couple and the younger couple, but not so bad IMO. I didn't watch 'This is 40', but I imagine this is a better movie than that one.

The only thing I didn't like is that the movie goes sideways a bit with the 'fake documentary' plot, and how the younger guy lied about a bunch of stuff to get in with the wife's dad.

[–] Naughty-God 9 years ago

I had the same problems with Josh and Cornelia's characterizations. I'd like to know just in what part of NYC Metro where a documentary film maker who is pretty well established and acculturated into the New York intellectual circles as well as the city itself have no exposure to pop culture in general. Same goes for his wife.

This has got to be one of Noah Baumbach's weaker film projects and it bothers me that he considers Ben Stiller a reflective muse of some sorts of his own persona.