Freeview film of the day: While We're Young

Premiere

10.00-11.35pm BBC2

At his peak, writer/director Noah Baumbach flies higher than a coasting Woody Allen, also from Brooklyn. Between Frances Ha and Mistress America – both vehicles for talented co-writing partner Greta Gerwig – he made this, his funniest film about the insecurities of the urban middle classes. Childless Josh and Cornelia (Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts) represent many couples in middle age when they attempt to feel younger by hanging out with two funky 20-somethings (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried). Stiller, horrified by an arthritis diagnosis, starts copying Driver’s ironic fashions, while Watts joins Seyfried’s hip-hop workout. But the youngsters aren’t as carefree as they seem and ulterior motives emerge. All four leads – along with Charles Grodin as Watts’s film-maker dad – are note-perfect, and it will make you think as well as laugh out loud. I wonder if Woody saw it?

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