Mumblecore queen Greta Gerwig (Damsels in Distress) stars as the hapless Frances, an aspiring dancer without love and without a job, in this Brooklyn-set comedy from writer-director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale). Searching for bliss, Frances fumbles for her dreams despite their rapidly fading possibility.
"Like many in her tribe of almost-adults, Frances aims to do many things but succeeds at very little. Her greatest triumph to date is her friendship with Sophie (Mickey Sumner), a dour-looking, tart-tongued girl who matches Frances' sense of humour quip for quip... These semi-hipsters mostly spend their days commenting on their lives like a pair of Dorothy Parkers. They also have to admit they're "like a lesbian couple that doesn’t have sex anymore"... Co-written by Baumbach and Gerwig, Frances Ha captures the rhythms of an over-educated, underemployed generation more intimate with their friends than their lovers." (Toronto International Film Festival)
Arriving from the States lauded with praise, writer/director Noah Baumbach and writer/star Greta Gerwig's comedy drama isn't quite the mumblecore masterpiece we've been led to believe. For one thing, it's not mumblecore but an expensively mounted international production with minimal plot. For another, it isn't a masterpiece.
Full reviewBaumbach pushes beyond sincerity in search of truth, drawing from such stylistic forebears as the French New Wave, Woody Allen and Andy Warhol's Factory films to capture a reality that has eluded him on his more polished dramedies.
Full reviewCharming, poignant and often very funny, Baumbach and Gerwig’s latest collaboration is a joyous portrait of an unformed personality that should strike chords of recognition in all who watch it.
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Daringly plotless and disconnected (“just like my life!” squeals the target audience), Noah Baumbach’s latest, a breeze, feels a lot less self-absorbed than usual, mainly for not having a neurotic at its core.
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Gerwig, who has effortless, behind-the-beat verbal timing, also possesses a knack for physical comedy, an enviable ability to obliterate the difference between clumsiness and grace.
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Gerwig's performance is full of depth and nuance; self-conscious without being mawkish, clever behind the kook.
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Perfect little nugget of a comedy... A vehicle for Gerwig’s moony charms, and she and Baumbach have crafted a smart screenplay that posits her as the embodiment of the late-20s NYC nomad.
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An exhilarating black-and-white New York seriocomedy from Noah Baumbach with a stellar star turn by co-writer Greta Gerwig.
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Although the monochrome photography will invite comparisons with Manhattan, Frances Ha is closer in spirit to Godard than Woody Allen. Anchored by a charming performance from Greta Gerwig, it’s as light and breezy as a walk in Central Park, and just as refreshing.
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