NYFF 2014 Panel Discussion with cast of While We’re YoungPosted by Wilson Morales
September 28, 2014
After so much speculation as to which film would be shown tonight at the 52nd New York Film Festival at Alice Tully Hall, the secret screening turned out to be, and to no one’s surprise, Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young. The film stars Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, and Charles Grodin.
The film had its World Premiere a few weeks ago at the Toronto International Film Festival, where its US rights got picked by A24 for a 2015 release date.
Here’s film’s description from TIFF – Aging gracefully is never easy, and it may be worse for artists. Josh Srebnick (Ben Stiller) is a New York documentarian who never quite got his due. As he labours over the umpteenth edit of his cerebral new film, it’s plain that he has hit a creative dry patch. Josh and his wife, Cornelia (Naomi Watts), tried to start a family and were unable — and have decided they’re okay with that. Yet for Josh, there is something still missing.
Enter Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried), who approach Josh after a class he teaches. A young artist couple, they are spontaneous and untethered, ready to drop everything in pursuit of their next passion — retro board games one day, acquiring a pet chicken the next. For Josh, it’s as if a door has opened back to his youth.
It’s not long before the unhappy fortysomethings Josh and Cornelia throw aside friends their own age — including Beastie Boy Adam Horovitz in a sly supporting role — to trail after these young hipsters who seem so plugged in, so uninhibited, so Brooklyn cool. “Before we met,” Josh admits, “the only two feelings I had left were wistful and disdainful.” But is this new inspiration enough to sustain collaboration with artists twenty years his junior?
In attendance were cast members Ryan Searchant, Adam Horowitz, Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Peter Yero, Maria Dizzia, and director Noah Baumbach.
After the screening, Adam Driver, Naomi Watts, Ben Stiller, director Noah Baumbach came on stage for a panel discussion with New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair, Kent Jones.
