A New York woman (who doesn't really have an apartment) apprentices for a dance company (though she's not really a dancer) and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as the possibility of realizing them dwindles.
A man from Los Angeles, who moved to New York years ago, returns to L.A. to figure out his life while he house-sits for his brother. He soon sparks with his brother's assistant.
Director:
Noah Baumbach
Stars:
Ben Stiller,
Greta Gerwig,
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Margot and her son Claude decide to visit her sister Pauline after she announces that she is marrying less-than-impressive Malcolm. In short order, the storm the sisters create leaves behind a mess of thrashed relationships and exposed family secrets.
Director:
Noah Baumbach
Stars:
Nicole Kidman,
Jennifer Jason Leigh,
Flora Cross
In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods.
Director:
Yorgos Lanthimos
Stars:
Colin Farrell,
Rachel Weisz,
Jessica Barden
Frances 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 has a best friend named Sophie, but they aren't really speaking anymore. 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.Written by
IFC Films
So much fun, so funny, so moving and beautiful and real. "Frances Ha" has gotten a few less than favorable reviews from folks on this very site, but I must strongly object to said reviews. Personally, this is just my kind of movie I guess. It's mostly plotless, episodically following the main character, Frances, as she struggles to make money and keep friends in NYC. It's very much in that classic indie movie mold of "oft-romantically-involved, witty, well educated twentysomethings living their daily lives with plenty of comedy and drama to go around," but there really is something about "Frances Ha" that makes it so much more special than the average film that fits this formula. Basically, one of the very best things your independent film can have is a performance by the lovely and talented Greta Gerwig, particularly as your film's leading lady, and especially when she's playing a character as compelling as this. She is super likable in every single scene she's in, but she still makes a boatload of face palming mistakes throughout the course of the film, while still being so lovable that you can't help but be on her side. She's just such a wonderful character, and is played with so much genuine honesty and accuracy by Gerwig (probably partially because Gerwig herself acts a lot like this in real life considering her overall mood during interviews and (more triumphantly recently) award speeches) that this movie becomes so much fun to "hang out" with, sort of like "American Graffiti" or "The Breakfast Club" or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or "Dazed and Confused" (as well as "Slacker" and The "Before" Trilogy) or even "Boogie Nights" to a certain extent; these are all movies I love, and I am so very grateful that a film like "Frances Ha" can now join such a list!
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So much fun, so funny, so moving and beautiful and real. "Frances Ha" has gotten a few less than favorable reviews from folks on this very site, but I must strongly object to said reviews. Personally, this is just my kind of movie I guess. It's mostly plotless, episodically following the main character, Frances, as she struggles to make money and keep friends in NYC. It's very much in that classic indie movie mold of "oft-romantically-involved, witty, well educated twentysomethings living their daily lives with plenty of comedy and drama to go around," but there really is something about "Frances Ha" that makes it so much more special than the average film that fits this formula. Basically, one of the very best things your independent film can have is a performance by the lovely and talented Greta Gerwig, particularly as your film's leading lady, and especially when she's playing a character as compelling as this. She is super likable in every single scene she's in, but she still makes a boatload of face palming mistakes throughout the course of the film, while still being so lovable that you can't help but be on her side. She's just such a wonderful character, and is played with so much genuine honesty and accuracy by Gerwig (probably partially because Gerwig herself acts a lot like this in real life considering her overall mood during interviews and (more triumphantly recently) award speeches) that this movie becomes so much fun to "hang out" with, sort of like "American Graffiti" or "The Breakfast Club" or "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" or "Dazed and Confused" (as well as "Slacker" and The "Before" Trilogy) or even "Boogie Nights" to a certain extent; these are all movies I love, and I am so very grateful that a film like "Frances Ha" can now join such a list!