Gerwig reminds us what it means to be human as she discovers the challenges of independence and adulthood.
Every girl will leave Frances Ha wishing she was a 27-year-old dancer living in New York City. Baumbach and Gerwig have written a timeless comedy in the style of a French New Wave film to comfort any young adult who is struggling to navigate the responsibilities of becoming a ‘real adult’.
From the very first montage, we are submerged in the youthful mindsets of Sophie and Frances, friends with a homosocial relationship that we all wish we had. The sequence instantly references a period of cinema that best represents Frances’ spirit, ‘La Nouvelle Vague’. This was an era of film that strongly encouraged a new style of filmmaking. The consistent cutaways and a nostalgic ragtime soundtrack are just some of the techniques used by films from the New Wave that capture our central protagonists’ passion and bubbliness within the first few shots. The female representation that has been used by Baumbach in this indie comedy strongly depicts what it means to be a modern woman; compassionate, intelligent and playful but most importantly, human.
Something that really left me feeling satisfied after watching this film is the way that the narrative subverts the conventional trope of too many films which is the depiction of romance as the main thread. Despite Frances having encounters throughout the film with characters such as Dan, Lev and Benji, she remains focused on the aspects of her life which, at this point in time, she values most. Furthermore, the archetypal masculine character archetype is highly juxtaposed by Adam Drivers performance as he adopts the self-centred and immature characteristics that are often possessed by a female who is added into the narrative as a distraction for the male protagonist. To see these boundaries being broken time and time again especially when Greta Gerwig is involved makes me excited to see what she will give us next.
A simple element of the film which I think is often forgotten by viewers is Gerwig’s performance. There is something so encapsulating about her embodiment of a character who is so imperfectly perfect in a city where everyone is trying to prove themselves. She captures the desires of a generation who are desperate to create change for the general welfare of everyone else with the amplification of love and creativity. The presence of her idiosyncrasies such as struggling to operate in formal social situations resonates with the audience as we remember that nobody has perfected themselves. Frances Ha works closely with it’s environment and talented actors to illustrate this which may be what makes the film so special.
Frances Ha may have become one of my favourite films of all time as it fits the role of a warm and cosy comfort film that can both guide and entertain through tough times reminding me that we all have our own stories waiting to be told. Frances is just a fictional character with who we are lucky enough to share this reality with. For this reason, I have given the film 5 stars as it resonates with me as no other film can.
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