“Sometimes it’s good to do what you are supposed to do when you are supposed to do it.” asserts Greta Gerwig’s character in Francis Ha, pointing to the underlying dilemma the movie explores: being a 20 something who is out of college, but who hasn’t really started their life. This film can be compared to the Dunham’s Girls, which explores the same themes, and in a similar ways; layering a series of elliptical sketches. Stop motion views of lives that seems to have stopped their motion.
But while the underlying impulse behind Girls is comic, stringing together cringeworthy beads of absurdity, Frances Ha is a unified artistic experience that explores particular stage of life, and which builds to a turn and a (partial) resolution that’s pleasurable and satisfying.
This film is currently available to stream on Netflix and Epix.
(In honor of #IFFBOSTON each day of the festival I’ll post a capsule review of an alumni film)
Random Today 