Frances Ha

[wilder]

Frances (Greta Gerwig) lives in New York, but she doesn't really have an apartment. Frances is an apprentice for a dance company, but she's not really a dancer. Frances throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possible reality dwindles. Frances wants so much more than she has but lives her life with unaccountable joy and lightness. Frances Ha is a modern fable in which Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale, Greenberg) explores New York, friendship, class, ambition, failure, and redemption.

Directed by Noah Baumbach
Written by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig
Release Day - May 17, 2013

[Pubrick]

after the ridiculously stupid clip posted the other day i had just about written this off.

trailer is a bit more exciting, it has changed my mind from thinking this is going to be "boring as fuck movie about bullshit no one should have to think about", to..

"manic pixie dream girl saves her self?"

[©brad]

Hah yeah. Basically Girls in black and white.

Not to peddle hollywood gossip, but were Noah and Greta already an item on the set of Greenberg? I remember him getting divorced with Jennifer Jason Leigh right around then and oh god who cares. 

[modage]

This movie is pretty good back-to-basics reinvention for Baumbach but feels pretty slight.

[©brad]

From Gawker:

Frances Ha Trailer Sets Up Winning Hand of Indie Movie Bingo

The trailer for Noah Baumbach's new movie, starring and co-written with Greta Gerwig, is black and white and indie all over. It ostensibly tackles the pitfalls of relationships and derailed ambitions. But so much adorable hipster nonsense is packed densely into two minutes of the Frances Ha trailer that it calls for a game of indie movie bingo. Some items spotted straight off the bat:

Greta Gerwig
Noah Baumbach
Small apartment politics
Plinky music
Bike riding in a cardigan
Toasting with things that are not glasses (are those tomatillos?)
Under-employment
Modern dance
Modern love
Simple tautologies posing as profound statements: "Sometimes it's good to do what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to it."
Board games
Adam Driver in a hat

Aside from these near-cliches, Frances Ha looks like a potentially bright and endearing account of the New York 20-something. Here's to seeing Greta Gerwig back as her adorably plucky character after lamentable/grating versions in Damsels in Distress and Lola Versus. Also she's actually dating Noah Baumbach—real sweet.

[jenkins]

This movie is pretty good back-to-basics reinvention for Baumbach but feels pretty slight.

is this another highball? if so i'm ok with that, i like highball

the gawker list reminded me of the list i made for matt's music video. i think it's cool to see a thing and think about the social atmosphere you live in and realize how much of the living moment is inside the thing you watched. i don't get what's wrong with that

[BB]

after the ridiculously stupid clip posted the other day i had just about written this off.

But the clips are probably better representative of the actual rhythms of the film, right?

Either way, who the fuck has time for this shit?

Also, is it not possible to advertise a romantic-comedy without showing the heroine trip and fall?

[©brad]

Also, is it not possible to advertise make a romantic-comedy without showing the heroine trip and fall?

I'm starting to think final draft has an auto-make-protagonist-bust-her-ass function anytime it realizes you're writing a romcom.

[wilder]

Clip

[wilder]

Anatomy of a Scene

This movie is shot with a 5D Mark II btw

[jenkins]

http://www.criterion.com/films/28560-frances-ha

and also new

DUAL FORMAT BLU-RAY/DVD

does anyone else think "blah" about such news? it's very internet to think and ask. i'm being very internutty

[matt35mm]

I'm a fan of the movie, but it's definitely a case where this happened because of the IFC - Criterion relationship; anything that they have that could conceivably be considered for a Criterion tends to get it. When IFC picked up AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS in January, I predicted that it'd get a Criterion release, and this news makes me feel more confident about that prediction.

[Ravi]

This movie is pretty good back-to-basics reinvention for Baumbach but feels pretty slight.

It's a perfectly competent film, but it didn't really do much with this extended adolescence coming-of-age story that I hadn't seen before. The movie felt unnecessary.

Also, I wish Baumbach hadn't used a DSLR to shoot this. Even in black-and-white I noticed the ugly DSLR noise at times. Super-16 has grain, but it's more aesthetically pleasing.

[Lottery]

I came to appreciate this movie in a weird way. I think it has an odd value to it that is it feels contemporary in its events and mannerisms. There were some parts which felt awkward and forced early on buy I guess that's what it's kinda like when you're looking at a relationship from the outside. So at the same time there were parts that were so real, like I've met people like this and they do those things. I would say Gerwig isn't a particularly good actor but she works well in this and gets better as the film continues. I think youngish people living in the city are going to mention the word 'zeitgeist' or stuff like 'reflection of real experiences' a lot when discussing this film years from now. I really liked and kinda hated it but I have no idea how I will feel about it in the future. It's kinda easy sludge but good. I think you could derive a lot of unsaid moments and ideas from this.

Also something, something modern Woody Allen lite.