Frances Ha
I've felt very down the past couple of days. My body seems to crave more and more sleep, I could barely keep my eyes open in my AAT training session today. In the last hour, I've also had a piece of news that has exacerbated this mood. Ultimately I don't know who might read this so I think it's best not to elaborate. But it's another personal setback, let's leave it there.
I probably watched the perfect film in regards to personal setbacks at the weekend in Frances Ha by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. Gerwig plays the titular Frances, a 27 year old dance apprentice struggling to make a living in New York. The film is an example of "mumblecore" a subgenre that I don't know an awful lot about but is apparently "heavily focused on naturalistic dialogue". The consequence of this is that the first half forces us to spend time with a group of pretentious big city twentysomethings who speak frequently and say nothing.
It's a good job then, that Frances herself is a likeable screen presence. She's a young, joyful soul who thinks nothing of literally dancing in the street. A combination of poor decision making and events conspiring against her sees Frances couch surfing around the Big Apple. An excruciating perfectly played scene at a dinner party illustrates her quandry perfectly, seeming perrenially out of step with her settled contemporaries.
More troubling for her is the deterioration of her relationship with her childhood friend and former flatmate Sophie, with Frances unable to accept her desire to move on in her life. They reconcile of course. There's a more interesting film about our generation buried somewhere in Frances Ha and the conflict between following your dreams and striving for responsibility and maturity. These themes are glossed over in the obligatory happy ending, where Frances' eventual redemption and success are rushed through in the final ten minutes in a frankly unrealistic fashion.
It takes far too long to get going but it's enjoyable enough. There are worse ways to pass 90 minutes but I suspect it won't live long in the memory.
I probably watched the perfect film in regards to personal setbacks at the weekend in Frances Ha by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. Gerwig plays the titular Frances, a 27 year old dance apprentice struggling to make a living in New York. The film is an example of "mumblecore" a subgenre that I don't know an awful lot about but is apparently "heavily focused on naturalistic dialogue". The consequence of this is that the first half forces us to spend time with a group of pretentious big city twentysomethings who speak frequently and say nothing.
It's a good job then, that Frances herself is a likeable screen presence. She's a young, joyful soul who thinks nothing of literally dancing in the street. A combination of poor decision making and events conspiring against her sees Frances couch surfing around the Big Apple. An excruciating perfectly played scene at a dinner party illustrates her quandry perfectly, seeming perrenially out of step with her settled contemporaries.
More troubling for her is the deterioration of her relationship with her childhood friend and former flatmate Sophie, with Frances unable to accept her desire to move on in her life. They reconcile of course. There's a more interesting film about our generation buried somewhere in Frances Ha and the conflict between following your dreams and striving for responsibility and maturity. These themes are glossed over in the obligatory happy ending, where Frances' eventual redemption and success are rushed through in the final ten minutes in a frankly unrealistic fashion.
It takes far too long to get going but it's enjoyable enough. There are worse ways to pass 90 minutes but I suspect it won't live long in the memory.
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