 |
| Scene from While We're Young |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for ears to come.
Released: March 27, 2015
Release Number: 18
Directed By: Noah Baumbach
Written By: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver
A middle-aged couple's career and marriage are overturned when a disarming young couple enters their lives.
The second year of A24 had been a rough one with a series of middling films that failed to capture the magic of their Freshman class. However, 2015 was going to be the start of serious change. While there would be plenty of hits and misses, it would be the year when they began winning Oscars while being a powerhouse of highly anticipated work. Their first film of the year, director Noah Baumbach's While We're Young, hit several familiar notes for the filmmaker while producing a midlife crisis comedy for adults, featuring a mix of 90's actors Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, along with more modern stalwarts in Star Wars' Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. While the film would fail to be Baumbach's most acclaimed film of the year, it was still a great sign of what was to come for A24.
The story of how While We're Young came to be lacks an interesting story, in part because of how seasoned a filmmaker Baumbach was. It was another film dealing with the struggles of adulthood through a comedic yet adult lens. When conceptualizing the film, he suggested that his biggest influence was the exploration that everyone has of the past. For example, he cites that he didn't listen to Top 40 music in his youth. He was however drawn to listen to the same music decades later and felt an emotional response. By having his reference point be almost entirely outdated, he wasn't tied to modern culture in a way that was freeing. It's the type of mentality that has gotten him branded a hipster on former movies like Greenberg and Frances Ha, but it was never a title that outright bothered him.
While no shooting schedule is readily available, the movie was known to be in the works as early as 2013. This was due to news that James Franco had dropped out of the project to focus on Oz: The Great and Powerful. A handful of names had switched in and out of the production, most notably frequent Baumbach collaborator Greta Gerwig. Seyfried would end up playing Gerwig's part. The cast integrated a variety of former Baumbach collaborators that included actors Ben Stiller (Greenberg) and Adam Driver (Frances Ha). The film would also be composed by LCD Soundsystem musician James Murphy, who had worked with Baumbach previously on Greenberg as well. Murphy composed the opening lullaby version of David Bowie's "Golden Years," which Baumbach felt symbolized his bigger point of people looking into the past for answers and happiness. There were also several noteworthy musicians in supporting roles including Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (Beastie Boys), Dean Wareham (Luna), and Peter Yarrow (Peter Paul and Mary) in his acting debut.
Baumbach imagined the film as fitting more into the adult comedy format that he believed didn't get made too anymore. The story's focus around Stiller's work on a documentary with Yarrow helped to create the sense of a relic media that everyone was searching for. It was perfectly counterbalanced with the younger characters seeking answers from Stiller that ended up drawing the conflict for the movie. The film was noticed to have been shooting in September of 2013. There was also only a handful of songs that Baumbach felt were necessary to the script, including 2Pac's "Hit 'Em Up," which was solely so that Watts and Seyfried would have enough time to rehearse the routine. Otherwise, the only other noteworthy aspect of the film was that a late scene between Stiller and Driver was shot to implicate a Sherlock Holmes facing his nemesis Moriarty moment.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014. It received generally positive reviews and was shortly bought by A24 after that. The film would be the studio's first release of 2015, where it earned around $7.5 million at the box office. It became Baumbach's highest grossing film to date. The film would earn an 84% on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, which makes it among A24's highest rated films as of its release. The general praise highlighted his intelligent script and his inventive new characters that presented his ideas in some of his funniest ways to date. The general praise was strong, but it was later perceived as the second best Baumbach movie of 2015. The later release with collaborator Greta Gerwig called Mistress America ended up taking all of the attention away from While We're Young. Still, both films remain highly considered in the body of Baumbach's filmography.
This wouldn't be the last time that Baumbach would be seen with A24. He would return with the documentary De Palma, and Gerwig would make her debut with Lady Bird two years later. Still, it was a great way to kick off year three with While We're Young showing Baumbach doing what he did best. With plenty of heart and comedy, he released another enjoyable film about growing old and discovering the frustrations of adulthood. Up next is another film that made its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and one that featured an even more high profile cast with Billy Bob Thornton and John Malkovich. It was a thriller that showed the complexity of the studio's output and their ability to have compelling actors unafraid to play bizarre roles with them. Cut Bank wasn't destined to be the biggest film from the studio, but it continued their ambitious and unique direction of film releases.
Up Next: Cut Bank (2015)
The story of how While We're Young came to be lacks an interesting story, in part because of how seasoned a filmmaker Baumbach was. It was another film dealing with the struggles of adulthood through a comedic yet adult lens. When conceptualizing the film, he suggested that his biggest influence was the exploration that everyone has of the past. For example, he cites that he didn't listen to Top 40 music in his youth. He was however drawn to listen to the same music decades later and felt an emotional response. By having his reference point be almost entirely outdated, he wasn't tied to modern culture in a way that was freeing. It's the type of mentality that has gotten him branded a hipster on former movies like Greenberg and Frances Ha, but it was never a title that outright bothered him.
While no shooting schedule is readily available, the movie was known to be in the works as early as 2013. This was due to news that James Franco had dropped out of the project to focus on Oz: The Great and Powerful. A handful of names had switched in and out of the production, most notably frequent Baumbach collaborator Greta Gerwig. Seyfried would end up playing Gerwig's part. The cast integrated a variety of former Baumbach collaborators that included actors Ben Stiller (Greenberg) and Adam Driver (Frances Ha). The film would also be composed by LCD Soundsystem musician James Murphy, who had worked with Baumbach previously on Greenberg as well. Murphy composed the opening lullaby version of David Bowie's "Golden Years," which Baumbach felt symbolized his bigger point of people looking into the past for answers and happiness. There were also several noteworthy musicians in supporting roles including Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (Beastie Boys), Dean Wareham (Luna), and Peter Yarrow (Peter Paul and Mary) in his acting debut.
Baumbach imagined the film as fitting more into the adult comedy format that he believed didn't get made too anymore. The story's focus around Stiller's work on a documentary with Yarrow helped to create the sense of a relic media that everyone was searching for. It was perfectly counterbalanced with the younger characters seeking answers from Stiller that ended up drawing the conflict for the movie. The film was noticed to have been shooting in September of 2013. There was also only a handful of songs that Baumbach felt were necessary to the script, including 2Pac's "Hit 'Em Up," which was solely so that Watts and Seyfried would have enough time to rehearse the routine. Otherwise, the only other noteworthy aspect of the film was that a late scene between Stiller and Driver was shot to implicate a Sherlock Holmes facing his nemesis Moriarty moment.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014. It received generally positive reviews and was shortly bought by A24 after that. The film would be the studio's first release of 2015, where it earned around $7.5 million at the box office. It became Baumbach's highest grossing film to date. The film would earn an 84% on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, which makes it among A24's highest rated films as of its release. The general praise highlighted his intelligent script and his inventive new characters that presented his ideas in some of his funniest ways to date. The general praise was strong, but it was later perceived as the second best Baumbach movie of 2015. The later release with collaborator Greta Gerwig called Mistress America ended up taking all of the attention away from While We're Young. Still, both films remain highly considered in the body of Baumbach's filmography.
This wouldn't be the last time that Baumbach would be seen with A24. He would return with the documentary De Palma, and Gerwig would make her debut with Lady Bird two years later. Still, it was a great way to kick off year three with While We're Young showing Baumbach doing what he did best. With plenty of heart and comedy, he released another enjoyable film about growing old and discovering the frustrations of adulthood. Up next is another film that made its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and one that featured an even more high profile cast with Billy Bob Thornton and John Malkovich. It was a thriller that showed the complexity of the studio's output and their ability to have compelling actors unafraid to play bizarre roles with them. Cut Bank wasn't destined to be the biggest film from the studio, but it continued their ambitious and unique direction of film releases.
Up Next: Cut Bank (2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment