On Private Life

Netflix is flexing its muscles and a lot of the publicity this year has been taken up with Roma and The Ballard of Buster Scruggs, and rightly so as they’re both superb. Yet, sitting quietly on the streaming service is Private Life, a Noah Baumbach like, New York City drama about a couple in their early 40s trying for a baby. Written and directed by Tamara Jenkins, Private Life is a film that feels rooted in lived experience and, perhaps because of that, takes directions that are not predictable. Much like life. There are details that make the narrative, if not always the characters of settings, original. There are character types that will feel familiar, such as the young, educated college student who doesn’t yet know what she doesn’t know and the older relatives struggling with the knowledge they’ve outgrown a ‘scene’. Jenkins makes all this feel fresh and her mise en scene is alluring and authentic. Private Life is an excellent film.