Frances Ha
In Frances Ha, a splendidly modest black-and-white film directed by Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig (who is also the film’s co-writer) stars as Frances, 27, an idiosyncratic, free-spirited aspiring modern dancer living in Brooklyn. Her world turns upside down when her roommate and BFF, Sophie (Mickey Sumner), meets a fella and decides to move out. Sophie then moves into another Brooklyn pad with two young guys, Lev (Girls’ Adam Driver) and Benji (Michael Zegen), as she tries to find some direction in her life.
The film is one of the best so far this year—a romantic meditation on life as a directionless millennial suffering for her art in New York City. Or, the plight of the hipster.
Some will find Mr. Baumbach's seventh film to be quirky bordering on precious, a Brooklyn hipster's version of Woody Allen's "Manhattan," or an upscale take on Andrew Bujalski's seminal, microbudgeted "Funny Ha Ha" (with which it bears too many similarities not to be an homage). Everyone has an opinion, of course; some people probably think the Sistine Chapel's ceiling is a little busy.
For others, the glorious "Frances Ha," co-written by Mr. Baumbach and his real-life paramour Greta Gerwig, will possess an irresistibly lovely, melancholic acknowledgment that love is impossible, and that the more candid a young woman is, the less eligible she becomes in the standard romantic sweepstakes. Shot in breathtaking black and white by Sam Levy, the film is also honest about New York City in a way Mr. Allen has never had to be: The city has become a theme park for trust-fund babies, in which la vie bohème is a pricey fashion statement. Someone like Frances, a dancer without investment portfolio, or even a real apartment, who lives footloose out of necessity—not, like most of her friends, amusement—is a truly endangered species.
En route to Frances' self-realization, there are moments in which the movie falters, forces a joke or leaves a line hanging in the air like old wash. But "Frances Ha" also marks the rare instance in which an actress has the perfect role at the perfect time. Ms. Gerwig's work here is fragile, delicate, subject to bruising; something that could wither under too much attention. Perhaps Ms. Gerwig is the greatest actress alive. And maybe "Frances Ha" is just the ghost orchid of independent cinema.
Glorious. Irresistibly lovely.
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