July 24, 2015- While We’re Young!

Hello July,

did you also watch this? I was dragged last night by a group of friends, to watch a film on a childless couple in their forties, going through a crisis and thinking that hanging around with another couple in their twenties might be a “rejuvenating” solution, whereas arthritis starts and eye-sight problems appear.

The film is by Noah Baumbach, in his forties himself, with Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. A comedy about how to age gracefully? 

There was a kind of cult of youth, where all the cool things were done by the young couple, who finally want more or less what the older couple have but are not aware of it and unable to use their assets to create something because they lost their enthusiasm.

Ok, so, let’s see, the older couple seemed not to be able to finish anything: from a documentary to having a child. Because they were too pefectionistic or scared, they were both thinking too of themselves and not highly enough to get something done. They couldn’t (?) have children but the idea of adoption only arrives at the end. They become nerds with technology to look cool.

The younger couple are hipsters, and seem to represent the ideal of life, whereas they are a fiction. In the film, this couple doesn’t have psychological depth, it exists more as a point of reference for Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts.

Actually the film is not just about a middle aged couple. We can be old in our thirties, or even before, if we stay without any interest for any other than ourselves: am I the most talented and intelligent, sexy and beautiful person? Will I be famous, rich and adored by thousands of fans? Will I have the best …. boyfriend/girlfriend and many others who admire and desire me? … This seemed to be the preoccupation of Ben Stiller’s character, who just didn’t grow up.

These questions are important, but if this is all we have, we get old very fast. As adolescents, we might wonder about how others see us. But if our only objective in life is us, there is no growth, just aging, no matter what biological age we have.