Frances Ha (2013)

I sometimes equate this movie to waking up from a satisfactory sleep with the perfect amount of alcohol in the good ol' intestines, slowly coming to the realization that you have shit to do, responsibilities to attend, new lies to create, new truths to discover. We find Frances in a similar state at the beginning of the film, though she has yet realized the consequences of her actions.

When her best friend, Sophie, decides to move out and pursue other goals, Frances initially ruminates in their apartment alone. Having broken-up with a boyfriend over her refusal to live with him, Frances bounces between living arrangements. For most of this film, all of Frances' decisions seem terminal, as she can never settle in one place - whether it be at Benji and Miles' bachelor pad, France, her parents' house in California, or a dorm at her old university; this coupled with her unfulfilling job as an extra dancer in her company. She soon abandons everything in the interim of Sophie's engagement and move to Japan.

For a comedy, the movie has a sadness to it that is inescapable, sadness due to the fact that throughout much of the movie, Frances is alone. The friends she makes come and go, not because she lacks the ability to keep them, but because of the turnstile nature of life. The paths she takes lack a certain introspection and responsibility. Benji's date even points out the superficial economic implications of using a credit card to travel to Paris for the weekend, whereas Frances is more concerned with reading Proust. She ultimately has to face the question of identity in a nomadic lifestyle, and decide between instability and control. It is this viewer's opinion that _Frances Ha_ reaches a conclusion located somewhere in the middle - in that gray area on a drunken night where the room spins around the bed, and the only reprieve is a foot placed on the floor.

Frances Ha worked really well for me. The performance from Greta Gerwig was brilliant, she carried the film. There is a perfect balance of quirky comedy and heartbreaking drama. I was giggling and tearing up constantly at the journey of Frances. But the overall story was a great ride that ends with such a satisfying conclusion. It is a fantastic feel-good story about self-discovery and perseverance. Noah Baumbach is not one of my favorite directors, but this was definitely a hit for me.

Score: 75%
Verdict: Good

As she heads inexorably towards her thirties, “Frances” (Greta Gerwig) is struggling to make her way in an unforgiving New York City. She’s an aspiring dancer who vacillates between a lack of self-confidence on one hand and an ill-placed complacency on the other. Neither really reflect her personality accurately but the fact that she has spent most of her life thus far with best pal “Sophie” (Mickey Sumner) has presented her with an almost marital, entirely sexless, sort of comfort blanket that has meant any sort of commitment with anyone else is never really on her radar. That’s exemplified by her rapport with “Benji” (Michael Zegen). He’s another intimate with whom she isn’t intimate - even though their scenes together suggest that neither would balk at the idea, if one were to actually act upon something. What the film does for eighty minutes is follow her sometimes quite earthily entertaining antics as she tries to survive, thrive and even travels to Paris. There is a great deal of dialogue, and maybe that could have been pruned back to allow the more pertinent stuff to breathe more, but Gerwig delivers confidently and the whole thing offers us quite a potent and wry observation of just how tough life can be when you are seeking a career in a volatile industry - but in one that’s not as volatile as your own life.