Patch in Boots
Frances Ha (2013)
directed by Noah Baumbach
rating:3 4 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
A Google search for Alyson Hannigan returns a handful of awkward photo shoots from the early aughts that it's difficult to imagine Greta Gerwig ever suffering through. Hannigan is a millionaire many times over for her work on Buffy and How I Met Your Mother, and for all I know, couldn't be happier as one of America's most-recognized, best-loved comedic actors. Gerwig shares many of Hannigan's mannerisms (that's why I was thinking about her) but try to picture Hannigan and her husband Wesley Wyndham-Price in this picture and you can't help but wonder if maybe you should be watching HIMYM instead of Frances Ha.
My point is that Noah Baumbach might have had feathered tips in the sit-down interview with Peter Bogdanovich that's included on the Criterion DVD. I'm not sure because I turned it off before the goodwill came undone like a joke about one of Willow's addiction spells. Do you know why the movie is called Frances Ha? I didn't, but there's a reason, and it's terrific.
The whole movie is pretty terrific, in fact, in part because of Gerwig, and in part because it's so restrained. Like Midnight in Paris, it allows all of the funny lines and situations to settle softly around a single, gentle observation about the thrill of finding happiness in a lonely and indifferent world. Poor Frances is never faced with a "cringe-inducing" blowup of embarrassment; nothing ever falls completely to pieces. She endures a series of disappointments and frustrated expectations, but they don't add up to more than six weeks on a friend's couch and a run of sleepless nights.
Every so often, I think that the music Georges Delerue composed for Jules and Jim might be my favorite film score (in fact, I'm adding Music from the Films of François Truffaut to my library cart now!). Then I watch a movie like Frances Ha--chock full of sounds from "the Mozart of cinema"--and wonder if I'm one Bogdanovich interview away from feathered tips myself. We'll probably never know.
But take Benji (Michael Zegen). Benji is roommates with Adam Driver's Lev. All movies like this have a joke about a roommate like Lev: charming, oversexed, rich (nine times out of ten, he is usually played by Adam Driver). The Benji character looks like a good guy, but isn't, or else isn't a good guy--a little self-centered, a little demanding--but still ends up getting the girl (either our heroine, or maybe the heroine's best friend). Eric from Entourage is this archetype's Demon King.
Baumbach's Benji is glib and not a great listener but seems okay, if dull. When Frances gets drunk and feels sorry for herself, he senses an opportunity but knows it would be a mistake and doesn't take it. Over the course of the movie, his joke about Frances ("undateable!") evolves into a joke about himself. He seems, even at the periphery, even--at best--as a potential future partner for Frances, to mature.
Frances doesn't kiss Benji because Frances Ha isn't about Frances finding the right guy, another important point that movies like this often fail to make. But maybe that's because movies like this are actually pretty rare.
directed by Noah Baumbach
rating:
on DVD from Netflix
A Google search for Alyson Hannigan returns a handful of awkward photo shoots from the early aughts that it's difficult to imagine Greta Gerwig ever suffering through. Hannigan is a millionaire many times over for her work on Buffy and How I Met Your Mother, and for all I know, couldn't be happier as one of America's most-recognized, best-loved comedic actors. Gerwig shares many of Hannigan's mannerisms (that's why I was thinking about her) but try to picture Hannigan and her husband Wesley Wyndham-Price in this picture and you can't help but wonder if maybe you should be watching HIMYM instead of Frances Ha.
My point is that Noah Baumbach might have had feathered tips in the sit-down interview with Peter Bogdanovich that's included on the Criterion DVD. I'm not sure because I turned it off before the goodwill came undone like a joke about one of Willow's addiction spells. Do you know why the movie is called Frances Ha? I didn't, but there's a reason, and it's terrific.
The whole movie is pretty terrific, in fact, in part because of Gerwig, and in part because it's so restrained. Like Midnight in Paris, it allows all of the funny lines and situations to settle softly around a single, gentle observation about the thrill of finding happiness in a lonely and indifferent world. Poor Frances is never faced with a "cringe-inducing" blowup of embarrassment; nothing ever falls completely to pieces. She endures a series of disappointments and frustrated expectations, but they don't add up to more than six weeks on a friend's couch and a run of sleepless nights.
Every so often, I think that the music Georges Delerue composed for Jules and Jim might be my favorite film score (in fact, I'm adding Music from the Films of François Truffaut to my library cart now!). Then I watch a movie like Frances Ha--chock full of sounds from "the Mozart of cinema"--and wonder if I'm one Bogdanovich interview away from feathered tips myself. We'll probably never know.
But take Benji (Michael Zegen). Benji is roommates with Adam Driver's Lev. All movies like this have a joke about a roommate like Lev: charming, oversexed, rich (nine times out of ten, he is usually played by Adam Driver). The Benji character looks like a good guy, but isn't, or else isn't a good guy--a little self-centered, a little demanding--but still ends up getting the girl (either our heroine, or maybe the heroine's best friend). Eric from Entourage is this archetype's Demon King.
Baumbach's Benji is glib and not a great listener but seems okay, if dull. When Frances gets drunk and feels sorry for herself, he senses an opportunity but knows it would be a mistake and doesn't take it. Over the course of the movie, his joke about Frances ("undateable!") evolves into a joke about himself. He seems, even at the periphery, even--at best--as a potential future partner for Frances, to mature.
Frances doesn't kiss Benji because Frances Ha isn't about Frances finding the right guy, another important point that movies like this often fail to make. But maybe that's because movies like this are actually pretty rare.
posted by NPK at 10:03 AM
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