Film Festival Review: Frances Ha
Directed by Noah Baumbach
USA
If the NZIFF has an award for Kookiest Performance by a 27-year-Old in a Motion Picture That Just Avoids Becoming Annoying, then Greta Gerwig wins, hands-down. She’s Frances, a goofy, limbs akimbo New York gal trying to make her way in the world but mostly failing because she doesn’t trust herself to make good decisions, and she doesn’t trust her friends with the truth.
Her story — an adorable antidote to Sex and the City excess — is told in black and white, all French New Wave verve and indie pizzazz. That strange chap Adam from Girls is in it, playing that role everyone gets him to play, and the proximity to Girls’ territory highlights how sweet and clean this darling little film is. A little too darling, and a little too devoted to its lead actress, who wrote the story with the director, her boyfriend. Still, he seems to have cheered up a little since Margot at the Wedding and Greenberg.
