Frances Ha
Review by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or for home viewing, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
March 20, 2017 – What Jack Built
Short film time. I was sent an email to check out What Jack Built, but it didn’t do it for me. A good-looking film that begins in mystery with a pursuit of a monster by an inventor, but leads to an inevitable climax with no surprises. At all. Again, shorts are just trying to get by, so I’ll spare elaboration. Let’s get on to the next day…
March 21, 2017 – Actually, let’s wait one more day to get to the next film, ‘cause today’s my birthday break!
March 22, 2017 – Frances Ha
Frances Ha is as indie as movies can get. Noah Baumbach, no stranger to the indie feel, directs a script he wrote with star Greta Gerwig. Shot in black and white, this is a rambling story about a knockabout free spirit in New York City named Frances, who longs to be a dancer, but whose enthusiasm may outweigh her nuanced talent for the craft. There’s no hero’s journey or fight for a prize, but throughout, the dialogue absolutely wins this movie.
Baumbach and Gerwig have created a New York City where characters speak dialogue totally unique to their vision, and it sings. Even characters I didn’t like (and there are plenty), I could’ve listened to for hours. It’s an orchestra of verbage, boldly stylized and it ate me up (and vice versa). Besides Gerwig, Adam Driver, Mickey Sumner (why haven’t I seen more of her?), Grace Gummer and Josh Hamilton are some of the other actors spinning these conversations. But it’s all on Gerwig’s shoulders for the film to sink or soar, and her put-it-all-out-there energy and dedication to oddballness makes the film a solid success.
Determined not to grow up, but to remain with her lifelong best friend forever, Frances twirls and moves with scattershot randomness from one adventure to the next, often making really bad decisions along the way, but she admirably deflects bad news and seems to skim along top of it. It’s a marvelous performance of a genuine character. It’s the separation from this lifelong friend that is ultimately nagging at her, making her only more resilient to combat change. She’s surrounded by spoiled New York asswipes at every turn, the kind of people who I hope, now that I’ve stopped watching them in this movie, shrivel into a starved nothing.
Gerwig appeared in Baumbach’s Greenberg before this collaboration, and they’ve teamed again since for Mistress America. Both of these are going on this list as I need to take in more of this indie squad’s flights of fancy.
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Release Date: June 20, 2013
Run Time: 86 Minutes
Country: USA/Brazil
Rated: R
Distributor: IFC Films
