20-something Brooklynite loses her friend, boyfriend, apartment, job…enjoys dancing
One of director/writer Noah Baumbach’s funniest films (there are loads of great one-liners and throwaway gags), Frances Ha is a real treat. Greta Gerwig (dating Baumbach in real life) and the supporting cast are wonderful, the music is great (“Modern Love”!), and the beautiful black-and-white cinematography lends the film a poignant, bittersweet quality. Ostensibly about the relationship between two women, one moving towards conventional maturity – marriage and a professional life – and the other an artist mired in an arrested 20-something existence, Frances Ha treats friendship with the warmth and depth most films reserve for romance. I smile just thinking about this movie – it’s just so sweet and timeless and touching and enjoyable. Yes, these characters are solipsistic and self-serving, and yes, they are still engaging and endearing, and more importantly, very, very human.
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