Ben is a documentary filmmaker, but his work can only be found on eBay and his latest feature has been in production for eight years. He does teach a class in film making, and it’s here that he meets Kylo Ren, a young hipster film maker who eulogises over Ben’s questionable movie career.
Ben likes the fawning and soon the pair become friends, with Kylo’s wife, her off ‘Mamma Mia’, joining them for double dates. The older couple envy the free spirited youths and soon start to adopt parts of their lifestyles such as wearing silly hats and doing hip-hop aerobics. Ben and Kylo start to help each other on their projects and Ben is jealous when Kylo makes and edits a hit film is a few days, as his 8 hour epic is boring as hell and nowhere near finished.
Ben’s initial annoyance soon blooms into full blown irritation as he discovers that Kylo’s film may not have been as honest as he made out. Also, is Ben’s father in law, a celebrated documentary film maker, real reason that Kylo zeroed in on Ben? And will illicit kiss at a shaman dope session also signal problems for the forty something couple?
The older couple become alienated from their peer group of friends and with a gala celebration of the father in laws work due, will Ben expose the dodgy practices used by Kylo and are they really all that important? Will children come back into the occasion or will they accept what they have?
Written and directed by Noah Baumbach this film pretty much delivered what I was expecting. Lots of middle-aged angst and an examination of relationships set against a backdrop of coffee bars and sunglasses. It was OK though.
I liked the seduction of Ben as he was enticed into the hipster lifestyle. We all knew Kylo was a bad lot from the start when he kept leaving Ben to pay the bill, but Ben was blinded by the praise and energy of his younger rival. It was good that Ben started to see though the façade and it was a clever twist when his big exposure of his rival was met with a resounding ‘so what?’ from all in attendance.
Ben’s slavish devotion to the truth at all costs lost him sight of what really mattered - the truth of the story being told. It was questionable that Kylo set up his story, and the detection angle for Ben was decent, but at the end of the day people need to be entertained and if a narrative shortcut can lose several hours of Turkish politics, then we're all for it.
The performances from the two male leads were good with the two females not getting much to do. The whole enterprise was somewhat slight and I don't doubt that this one will fade quickly from the memory, but it was an enjoyable slice of life with some interesting questions asked, if not fully answered.
Best Bit : Ben's Film Gets the Critique it Deserves 16/23
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