Review of Frances Ha (2013) by Everett J — 09 Dec 2013

***As I'm sure anyone who reads any of my reviews know, I love to watch movies that get award recognition. It's an OCD type thing for me, and I do it every year. The Independent Spirit Awards came out and I immediately began to search for which movie I could watch immediately.

The first was "Frances Ha" which is up for best picture. I knew some of it before I watched, but the thing that stuck out most for me was the director Noah Baumbach. I typically find his movies to be very boring.

"Squid and the Whale" and "Greenburg" are two movies that got some recognition and just bored the hell out of me. Had fine performances and premises, but were just too slow. So I figured this would probably continue that trend.

It's always good to be wrong, as this is definitely his best movie yet. It's about a dancer named Frances(Greta Gerwig) who is one of those girls who can't get their life together. Her roommate/best friend moves out of their apartment and on with her life.

Frances then searches for new friends, while trying to make something of her dream to be a professional dancer. It does a great job of showing a real friendship that goes through the ups and downs of life.

Gerwig is fantastic and one of the better female characters I've seen the last few years. The movie is all black and white, which gives it a very unique feel. It does drag in spots, but it's only 90 minutes long and the soundtrack is great(had "Modern Love" by David Bowie stuck in my head since!).

Overall, if you're a fan of indy movies, then this is a definite movie to check out(it's available on Netflix streaming!). But if those type of movies aren't your thing, then you should probably steer clear.