If you like the film, you better ignore this post. And if you haven't seen it yet, this post can show you a bit different point of view and perhaps it will help to look on the film more objectively.
As long as I remember myself, the age categories in films were very limited. There were heroes in their teenage, characters after 30 and definitely not older than 70. I don't remember (maybe I'm wrong) so many films, series, programs about а decent, normal, average young women in their 20's. And because I'm in my 20's, to be true, I'm pretty excited because of it, first of all, because I know: I'm not the one in this weird and hard age. And I'm one of those decent, normal, average girls.
Baumbach's 'Frances Ha' is a simple story about a woman, who lives in NY, who's a bit careless dreamer, has a best friend and she's involved in some kind of relationships, works in a dance studio, but isn't actually a true dancer, has some financial problems etc. Nothing special, but still can be a good film, ha?
The first thing which I dislike a lot about 'Frances Ha' is Baumbach's idea of female friendship.
The way how Frances and Sophie live together, how they split up and the way they talk to each other, reminds me of one of those weak trials of simply guessing. I am sorry, but Noah Baumbach knows nothing about relationships between women.
The second thing, that I really dislike in 'Frances Ha' is a lack of good dialogues. They are too simple but like everything in this film - with a shadow of pretension. Sometimes it really looks like 'Frances Ha' was made for film festivals if you know what I mean...
And the last one dislike. Imagine a young woman with no roof over her head, no work, weird relationships with people etc. And she lives like this for a long time. Now imagine that one day she wakes up and everything is different. And this is how Baumbach's film like 120 minutes he's showing Frances with her hopes and fears, at the beginning of her road and on the last few minutes - boom! Frances is totally in a different place. Maybe I missed something? An hour of the film?! Or maybe I'm too pretentious?!
If you already prepared spoiled tomatoes and aggressive comments, please do it. A nice discussion is that thing I really need.
'Frances Ha' is good because it's black and white. As for me I love and adore b&w films. Especially modern ones. Perception of b&w films is absolutely different, and your attention is focused on completely different things. 'Frances Ha' is a nice film, because of few really nice and warm scenes.
I cannot recommend or not recommend this film. For me 'Frances Ha' is an overrated film and definitely not the best trial to show, whatever what Noah Baumbach wanted to show.
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2 Comments
I definitely agree that Frances Ha is overrated, but I think I liked it a bit more than you did. I think it is pretentious and to a certain extent, unrealistic, in terms of how she is able to survive financially especially, and the random unexpected ending that just sort of came out of nowhere (but then, maybe that's just how life is, sometimes just random, good luck?). There is also a comparison with the TV show Girls, and unfortunately when you compare the two the film comes up a little short. There is also a little bit of that annoying 'quirkyness' that is sometimes too overbearing in these type of films, e.g 'tell me the story of us'..just, urgh. :) However, I believed in Frances as a person, and I think with this film you have to warm to her otherwise you just won't get the film. I also thought it had a great soundtrack and as you mentioned, it looks good. So overall, I liked it but wouldn't recommend it.
ReplyDeleteWow! Thanks a lot for such a great comment! I really enjoyed reading it!
DeleteAs for Frances...I understand that this is not a documentary, that things are different in films (captain obviously cries;), but I don't get the whole point of the film. There's a lot of films about bad luck, black periods in life or total fails, but they're made more rationally. We all have this stuff in our lives. The director of Frances Ha forgot even to show this 1 minute of her really doing something (you know, when scenes are mute, only with music, but character rushing around, works, talks to other people etc. ). I really thought that there's something wrong with my copy and part of Frances Ha is missing:))
I wouldn't be so skeptical if I know that this is a decent film, with average rate like thousands others. Maybe I'm too whimsical (probably I am), but I really love the feeling, when you believe in what you watch and film takes you 'inside'.
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