Here’s a Taste of: FRANCES HA

I walked into this film distracted, I was worried I’d just spent too much on lunch, (although an enjoyable one at Pizzeria Stella (post to come) and by the fact that I was supposed to meet up with someone in the lobby before the film about other Tinsel & Tine business, but realized my last text to him didn’t go thru, right as my phone battery was going into the red. The movie’s starting, but I have to find a place to charge my phone and hope no one steals it from the back of the theater. Normally, such circumstances would have me somewhat detached from what I’m watching, instead I was immediately engaged and was able to put all other thoughts from me as I just totally and hilariously GOT EVERYTHING going on in the world of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha.

I enjoyed this movie so much it deserves a loving post where I really give my take on the movie and talk about why I relate to it, and the parts that made me think of my own friendship with my best friend, but I don’t have time. I’m seeing so many movies now, I’m working on two interviews and I’m in between jobs – YES, for those of you who follow Tinsel & Tine, I am no longer working at the job that was killing me, mind, body and soul.  Still, as everyone knows, looking for your next opportunity is a full-time job (suggestions and offers welcome 🙂

Back to Frances Ha –  I did have time to read this review on the Huffington Post which is like Ouch! to Greta Gerwig, what’s she ever done to this guy to deserve such shade?

…Well, OK, so I thought Gerwig was palatable in Baumbach’s sourly compelling Greenberg.
Beyond that, however, I’m not one of these critics who, in order to
sublimate a crush on Gerwig, has proclaimed her an actual actress.
Because she’s not much of one.
Nor, from the evidence here, is she much of a writer. Baumbach is,
but his brisk, acerbic wit seems to have been diluted by the watery
Gerwig, who seems to have no flavor whatsoever. Her performances are
weak tea, in the strongest sense of the term.
So is Frances Ha. Give it a miss and check into Baumbach’s earlier films, which have an astringently pointed wit that this film lacks. Watching Frances Ha is like viewing the outtakes from a movie you don’t want to see – Marshall Fine Huffington Post

To which I replied in the comment section:

After its premiere, [Telluride Film Festival] “Frances Ha” was greeted with critical acclaim — The Hollywood Reporter called the film “offbeat and smart,” saying that it was “incredibly rich to watch” — and comparisons to a similarly New York-centric show about youth and female friendship…

“Frances Ha” is an episodic, almost fragmentary film, structured by the decreasingly desirable addresses Frances finds herself living in — Prospect Heights in Brooklyn; Chinatown; eventually even Poughkeepsie, N.Y. — and the relationship between Frances and Sophie, best friends and roommates who drift together and apart…

And Ms. Gerwig is one of the most fascinating actresses of her
generation, known for her seemingly unstudied performances and nervy
physicality… 

For Mr. Baumbach, “Frances Ha” is a return to a moment he’s never really
stopped writing about: “That period in your 20s where you’re
necessarily having to separate yourself from a kind of romantic idea of
yourself,” as he put it. – Zach Baron The New York Times

It nice that Greta Gerwig and Mickey Sumner (daughter of Sting & Trudie Styler!) became real life friends.  And the only thing that I thought was unnecessary, but not terribly off putting, was the fact the entire movie is shot in black and white:

The relationship developed organically on set as it did in the
screenplay, Gerwig said: “Film sets are a place where within a day and a
half of shooting, you feel like you’ve never not known these
people. We didn’t say, ‘Let’s create a real friendship off screen that
we can bring to this screen.’ Mickey just understood it in her heart so
quickly. We didn’t feel the need to add sugar to sugar.”…

“It’s near impossible to make a movie in black and white in the
system,” Baumbach said. “I wanted to reinvent how I could make a movie
and with technology as it is, there was an opportunity for it. The
material felt black-and-white to me. I’m not 27 anymore, but there’s
something both old and new about the film, almost an instant nostalgia.
At the same time, because you aren’t distracted by color, there’s more
immediacy to it.

“But that’s somewhat retrospective. I really just wanted to make a movie in black-and-white,” Baumbach candidly added. – Ryan Lattanzio Indiewire

LAMB Score 4.5 out 5

(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i[‘GoogleAnalyticsObject’]=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),
m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)
})(window,document,’script’,’//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js’,’ga’);

ga(‘create’, ‘UA-10500917-2’, ‘auto’);
ga(‘send’, ‘pageview’);

Tinsel & Tine (Reel & Dine): Philly Film, Food

& Events Blog