How does anyone pay the rent?

Siskel & Ebert used to have a segment called, "How Can They Afford That Apartment With That Job?"

Same reason that ...

1) Lead characters are given ages a decade or more lower than the actor's. Ben Stiller is nearly 50 but his character is 44.

2) All main characters -- and even many supporting ones -- are attractive and slim, despite the fact that today in America, almost everyone is fat.

3) Whenever money is mentioned, the amount is always too high or too low. Like WAY.
Some 80's comedy had Martin Mull living in a house in Marin County on a 33k salary.
Give me a f!cking break.

4) Offices and other normally drab buildings are always incredibly fancy and visual. (Check out the police staion in Basic Instinct where Sharon Stone uncrosses her legs.)

That being ... reality is just not that appealing to filmmakers.

Welcome to Hollywood.

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How does anyone pay the rent?
NYC is expensive but none of the main characters seemed to earn any money.

You are correct that this often goes unexplained in movies set in New York, but in the case of this movie's two main characters, it is not true that this wasn't addressed. The movie communicates in a couple of ways that Josh and Cornelia's life is subsidized fairly extensively by her father, who (the movie also shows us) is very rich. There are several lines of dialogue that make it clear that although Josh has not worked for some time, Cornelia has had and continues to have a steady job as a producer for her father's documentaries. And we know that her father is extremely wealthy because we see both the interior and the exterior of his apartment. Baumbach establishes clearly that Leslie's apartment is on Gramercy Park South--which means that Leslie is very rich. This is from the trivia section:

When Josh leaves his father-in-law Leslie's apartment, a sign is visible next door for the National Arts Club. This means that Leslie (Cornelia's father) lives on Gramercy Park, long one of the most prestigious, exclusive, and expensive neighborhoods in Manhattan. The homes in the neighborhood face Manhattan's only private, gated park, and only those residents have the keys to the park. Famous neighborhood residents have included Isadora Duncan, Edwin Booth,Gregory Peck, and Julia Roberts.

So Cornelia and Josh can afford their apartment and lifestyle because Cornelia both works for and is the daughter of a very rich man.

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many hipsters irl are trust fund babies or have their lives funded by their rich parents. darby also has her ice cream business and it's possible her mother left her money/life insurance after her death. as far as ben stiller and naomi watts go, she works for her father and he teaches at a university.

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They don't pay rent because, they probably own the place.

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