While We're Young

While We're Young is a 2014 American comedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Noah Baumbach. The film stars Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, and Amanda Seyfried; its plot centers on a New York–based documentary filmmaker and his wife, a couple in their 40s, who develop a friendship with a couple in their 20s. The film was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, and A24 released it in the United States on March 27, 2015. The film went on to gross more than any of Baumbach's previous films at the US box office. Plot Middle-aged couple Josh and Cornelia Srebnick are filmmakers living in a shaky marriage in New York City. Josh has spent the last 10 years struggling on the post-production of his documentary film about leftist intellectual Ira Mandelstam while not letting his producer wife help him with the project. After finishing a lecture at the college where he teaches, Josh is approached by Jamie and Darby Massey, a young couple who invite him and Cornelia out to dinner. Jamie claims to be a fan of Josh's work and the works of his accomplished documentary filmmaker father-in-law, Leslie Breitbart. Josh is immediately awestruck by Jamie and Darby's non-conservative outlook on life as he and Cornelia begin spending more and more time with them, joining in on their bohemian lifestyle. An aspiring filmmaker himself, Jamie talks with Josh about their projects, including Josh's own documentary. This inspires Jamie to make a film about connecting with an old high school friend that he found on Facebook. Jamie and Darby invite Josh and Cornelia to an ayahuasca ceremony where a hallucinating Cornelia kisses Jamie while Jamie receives Josh's approval in helping with the production of his film. Cornelia agrees to produce the film. Jamie and Josh find the old friend, Kent Arlington, who is in the hospital after a suicide attempt. Josh and Jamie discover that Kent was involved in a civilian massacre during an Army tour in Afghanistan, creating an even bigger story for Jamie's film.