Review of Frances Ha (2013) by Lasttimeisaw — 10 Feb 2015

My second film of the NYC indie director Noah Baumbach, after his much-acclaimed indie darkhorse THE SQUID AND THE WHALE (2005, 9/10), although his muse has shifted from Jennifer Jason Leigh to the new indie-hotshot Greta Gerwig now, who stars as the titular protagonist and is the co-writer of this film.

Shot entirely in Black & White (or more specifically, it is digitally shot first and then transmuted into monochrome to discharge a feeling of nostalgia), the opening montages snappily show audiences the intimate friendship between Frances Ha (Gerwig), a 27-year-old amateur dancer in NYC, and her best friend Sophie (Sumner), and they have been inseparable since college and share an apartment as well. Ten minutes later, Frances flippantly breaks up with her boyfriend Dan (Esper) simply because she cannot accept Dan’s proposal of living together in his place as she still prefers to live with Sophie.