Directed by: Noah Baumbach.
Written by: Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig.
Starring: Greta Gerwig (Frances), Mickey Sumner (Sophie), Michael Esper (Dan), Adam Driver (Lev), Michael Zegen (Benji), Charlotte d'Amboise (Colleen), Grace Gummer (Rachel), Patrick Heusinger (Patch).
Greta
Gerwig is one of the most talented, smart, funny, adorable actresses working
right now – although pretty much only Noah Baumbach has given her roles that
allow that full potential to be realized. She worked for years in Mumblecore
movies – that were mostly insufferable, except for her presence. Her
performance in Baumbach’s Greenberg (2010) was the best thing about a very good
movie – while I admired Ben Stiller’s performance in that movie, and found him
a suitable character to be at the center of a Baumbach movie, I kept wishing
the movie would instead focus on Gerwig’s Florence – an even more fascinating
character, and not quite the picture of female perfection we have come to expect
in movie like Greenberg. That movie brought her wider attention – and since
then, she’s been cast as the quirky friend in the Natalie Portman-Ashton Kutcher
romcom No Strings Attached (2011), the love interest for Russell Brand in the
remake of Arthur (2011), the awkward leader of a trio of college girls trying
to help their school in Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress (2012), and the
cheated on girlfriend in Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love (2012). None of those
movies came close to capturing Gerwig’s awkward, funny, smart, adorable persona
– they essentially wasted her talents. Perhaps that’s why she co-wrote Frances
Ha with Baumbach – because this is the perfect vehicle for her and her talents.
And if there is justice in the world, should make her a star.
The
film is shot in black and white and has a visual style that recalls early
Godard or Truffaut, and because it’s set in New York will remind other viewers
of Woody Allen’s Manhattan – all three directors seem to be touchstones for
Baumbach here. It stars Gerwig as Frances, a 27 year old graduate from a good
school, who is deluding herself in two ways – the first that she will ever
become a full time dancer in the company where she has spent 5 years as an
apprentice (if you haven’t made it by the time your 27 as a dancer, you’re not
going to), and the second is that her college best friend Sophie (Mickey
Sumner) will be her best friend and roommate forever. “We’re practically the
same person!” Frances tells anyone who will listen to her. The audience knows
that Frances is deluding herself on both of these counts – and should be clear
to Frances as well, the way the company director Colleen kindly drops hints
that she should find something else, or get back into choreography, and the way
Sophie cruelly dumps Frances on the subway to move in with another girl with
the lame excuse “You know I’ve always wanted to live in Tribeca!”.
In
some movies – okay, probably most movies – this would make Frances an annoying
and frustrating character to spend an entire movie watching. But what separates
a great movie like Frances Ha from a horrible movie like last year’s The
Comedy, is not only how clearly the movie sees Frances, but also just how plain
likable she is. Everyone loves Frances – even if they pity her. Throughout the
course of the movie, she’ll move from one temporary house to the next – the apartment
with Sophie, the apartment with two trust fund “artists”, one of whom she goes
on a date with, although he doesn’t work out because he will sleep with
anything that walks, and one she probably should date, but is too messed up to,
her parents’ house at Christmas, the couch of a fellow dancer, a Parisian apartment
for two days, her old school for the summer, and then finally, her own place.
The movie marks the time by showing us these different spots along the way, as
Frances is gradually stripped of her delusions.
The
movie is humorous throughout – from the opening fight and breakup between
Frances and her boyfriend, to the way she and Sophie compare sexual notes about
their partners (“He could only finish with me lying flat on my stomach – all the
important pieces are covered”), to an almost painful dinner party scene, where
Frances hears news about Sophie that apparently everyone else knew except her,
and reacts as if she was just punched in the gut, yet tries to keep smiling
throughout. Frances Ha does many things well, but perhaps above all, it shows
the changing nature of friendship – as Frances gradually has to except that her
friend Sophie is now with “Patches” – even if he likes to come in her face, and
she quits her good job in publishing to follow him to Japan, and eventually
admits that she is miserable with him during a long drunken night in which
Frances thinks everything is returning to “normal”, only to once again have it
taken away in the harsh light of day.
Frances
Ha is refreshing in many ways – it’s funny, but in a smart way, like the best
Woody Allen films. And yet, this is a film about a woman – not a Woody Allen
woman or a picture of female perfection, but a real woman, flaws and all. It’s
also nice to see a movie about New York where money is actually mentioned –
when Frances mentions she’s poor, her trust friend Benji tells her “that’s offensive
to actual poor people” – but when you’re unemployed, have no money, and have
middle class parents who can’t afford to let you live the life of an artist in
New York, you’re poor. And the movie has one of those glorious musical moments
in film, where you know as you’re watching it you will never be able to hear
the song without thinking of that moment in the film – in this case, Frances
dancing though the streets of New York set to David Bowie’s Modern Love.
The
only complaint I have about the movie is that I think it ends a little too
easily. I’m not quite sure I believe that everything would work out quite as
quickly as everything works out in Frances Ha. And yet, I find that to be a
minor complaint – and one I don’t really mind. By the end of the movie, you’re
rooting for Frances – and it’s nice to see her happy.
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