While We're Young 2015

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The most hilarious Woody Allen film in years is directed by Noah Baumbach, with Ben Stiller as basically an updated version of the idealistic documentary filmmaker the Woodman played in 'Crimes and Misdemeanors.' Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Another inconsequential Noah Baumbach parody of so-called "normal" people trying to function in a fractional society changing too rapidly to keep up with, While We're Young is a dreary bummer. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: Baumbach's own acutely observed this-is-life laffer features his most relatable characters yet. Read more

A.A. Dowd, AV Club: Baumbach is never less than shrewd in the way he links his protagonists through insecurity. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: A sharp look at getting older, growing up and assuming responsibility. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Baumbach may be the sharpest social satirist of his generation - in some ways, he's a Woody Allen with clearer vision and fewer nervous tics - but the message of this droll, enjoyable bourgeois vaudeville can be boiled down to Father Knows Best. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: The storytelling is smooth and assured and the one-liners are generally enjoyable. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Baumbach belongs in a select group of invaluable American directors. He makes movies built, increasingly, like traditionally structured studio comedies of an earlier age. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The film has [Baumbach's] usual strengths: sharp urban insights, brainy comedy, moments of inspired high exasperation. It also shares a few of his faults. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: The wonderful thing about While We're Young and the relationship that develops between Josh and Cornelia and Jamie and Darby is that it's less about resentment than it is a celebration of romantic love. At least initially. Read more

Adam Graham, Detroit News: Baumbach plays with universal themes about the uncertainty of aging, the elusive nature of "cool" and the acceptance that comes with settling down ... Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: A sometimes poignant paean to struggling to age gracefully while time drags you kicking and screaming to the inevitable end, While We're Young effectively balances wry comedy and bittersweet drama. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: It's not Stiller's character who's the curmudgeon, it's Baumbach. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: We know from his previous work that Baumbach is capable of writing much more interesting and full-conceived female characters than these, so the gender imbalance here is disappointing. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: This delicious satire about aging hipsters and their discontents is everything we've come to expect from the best of Noah Baumbach, as well as several things more. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: While We're Young starts off as an empathetic, funny look at middle age and winds up as profound and schematic as a Neil Simon play - or, for the younger set, an episode of The New Girl. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: It shows a director not so much mooning over the past, with regret for faded powers, as probing his own obsessions and the limits of his style. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: "While We're Young" is snarky, smart and surprising, right up until the final shot. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: Noah Baumbach's best movie since 2005's The Squid and the Whale, While We're Young navigates into more mainstream territory while losing none of the writer-director's rueful wit. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: When Baumbach is on, he's really on, and the brilliant "While We're Young" contains the same self-lacerating humor as his "Greenberg," "Margot at the Wedding" and "The Squid and the Whale." Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: I have some problems with this movie, not all of which can be ascribed to the usual narcissism of small differences. But first it's important to acknowledge the acuity of Mr. Baumbach's insight and his overall generosity of spirit. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Baumbach, whose films include the searingly funny, autobiographical The Squid and the Whale and the brilliantly uncomfortable Margot at the Wedding, writes wry, sharp, poignant stuff. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: While We're Young may provide the fusion of two disparate narrative packages but the glass is only half-full. Read more

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: For about an hour, "While We're Young" was one of the most exhilarating times I've had at the movies in many a month. It played like razor-sharp Woody Allen in his prime. Read more

Christy Lemire, RogerEbert.com: The observant and mocking humor that makes the film's first two-thirds so breezy and enjoyable gives way to shattering realizations, but Baumbach ultimately tempers that instinct somewhat by exhibiting genuine sympathy for Stiller's character. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Stiller's scenes with the gifted Adam Driver escalate into generational comic warfare of a high order. Baumbach touches a raw nerve. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: A knotty exploration of the dialectic between sincerity and authenticity, or the shifting relationship between truth and fiction in an age where we're no longer sure what those words mean ... Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: For a while much of this contemporary comedy is great fun - until the party ends and you're ready for these people to go home. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: "While We're Young" is one step forward and two steps back for writer-director Noah Baumbach, whose movies are never less than intelligent but, at their worst, tend to settle for gestures instead of movements. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's a satire of endless youth, "The Kids Are All Right" colliding with "My Generation." Yet it's the best kind of grown-up absurdism. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Only an artist at the midpoint between the maypole and maturity could concoct a comedy as potent as "While We're Young." Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: If you've been wishing you could see a good Woody Allen comedy again, you should check out Noah Baumbach's While We're Young, which sees the 45-year-old director moving in on Allen's territory - the Manhattan comedy of manners. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: While We're Young pairs two New York couples, one middle-aged and anxious and the other millennial and carefree. Both are in for a satirical skewering, but also - and here's a change for Baumbach - something close to a hug. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The verbal wit and comic set-ups are smart and sprung from the zeitgeist. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: Baumbach's confidently charming latest, plays more like a Woody Allen-ish parody than any of his other movies, but the shift hasn't required a sacrifice in insight, heart or bite. Read more

Jim Slotek, Toronto Sun: There are so many deserving targets skewered by Noah Baumbach's savvy Ben Stiller comedy While We're Young, you could lose count. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A sharply observed and witty dark comedy. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Baumbach's eighth feature isn't just sharp, it's serrated - its jokes, and there are lots of them, come at you with rows and rows of tiny teeth. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Only the motives of Baumbach's alter ego are pure. Meanwhile, the most entertaining questions - Can people transcend wide age gaps? Should they want to? - turn out to be beside the point. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Even at its most confected, this is a film that tells the truth. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Putting one's finger on exactly what's wrong with "While We're Young" is a challenge. Best to use several fingers. Read more