Directed by:
Noah BaumbachCinematography:
Sam LevyCast:
Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Grace Gummer, Adam Driver, Marina Squerciati, Juliet Rylance, Lindsay Burdge, Josh Hamilton, Vanessa Ray, Finnerty Steeves (more)VOD (1)
Plots(1)
Twenty-seven year old Frances Halladay, originally of Sacramento, California, is trying to make it in New York City as a dancer, she is an apprentice in a modern dance troupe. Despite both being heterosexual, she and her best friend Sophie, who went to college together at Vassar, consider themselves to be like an old, married, lesbian couple who don’t have sex with each other. Frances stumbles from one situation to another, both in her professional and personal lives, in her expectations and her abilities not always matching each other. In some respects, she stays true to her slightly off-kilter visions without the understanding that she doesn’t have the abilities to meet those visions. In other respects, she sells herself short, such as she and a male friend, Benji, kidding each other that they are both undateable, while deep in their hearts they wouldn’t mind dating each other. One thing that Frances does realize is that she has to work to survive in expensive New York, she’s unable to rely on her parents for that financial support. The question then becomes if Frances will be able to find that right balance for her life in New York. (Umbrella Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (2)
After overcoming the Happy-Go-Lucky syndrome of wrathful hatred for the main characters (and the crazy management and atmosphere), I have to appreciate Baumbach's elegant storytelling, cleverly written dialogues, the courage to make unsympathetic characters who are out of the "laid back friends" box, and the literary structure of the story (relationships). Frances Ha didn't particularly affect me, but it's a bright and non-banal conversational comedy that also captures the atmosphere of New York in black and white (and beautifully quotes Leos Carax's Mauvais Sang - which I did appreciate, except for the friendly warning). In the end, a pleasant film, with whose protagonist it is difficult to establish an emotional bond, but it is quite easy to understand and watch with interest.
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Frances Ha is a more idealistic, outsider-ish, and melancholic Girls, thanks to which Noah Baumbach’s ground-breaking film has a better rating among most men than Lena Dunham’s phenomenal series. Whereas Dunham’s heroines are sophisticated and not ashamed to be open in their futility and awkwardness, Baumbach’s idealised ode to his new love and co-writer Greta Gerwig rather gives the impression of a deranged and self-centred manic pixie dream girl. The director and the viewers make up the male counterpart who comes to the enchantment of life through her. Like the narrative ideal of a number of indie films, Frances Ha is a pleasing and ostentatiously free-thinking fairy tale that enchants with its concept of friendship and love.
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