MOVI ES
e 13
RENOIR June 7-Jun
BY MO LLY TEMP LETO N
in French.
2:30, 5:15, 7:45
TWENTYSOMETHING
Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha is a delightful look
at the quarter-life crisis
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492 East
13 th Ave.
FRANCES HA
Greta Gerwig
2:45, 4:50, 7:00, 9:00
Gathr Preview Series
presents
MORE THAN HONEY
MUD
1:00, 3:45, 7:45, 10:15
LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED
1:45, 4:25, 7:00
FROM UP ON POPPY HILL
1:30, 3:35, 5:45, 6:45, 10:30
ANGELS’ SHARE
12:30, 2:50,5:20, 8:00, 9:45
$10/no passes
THURS, 6/13—7:30 PM
tickets at www.gathr.us
SPRING BREAKERS
541-686-2458
541-686-3229
www.bijou-cinemas.com
bijou-cinemas.com/bijoumetro
9:00, 11:00
43 West
Broadway
Adults—$7 * Students w/ID—$6 * Seniors—$5 * Matinees—$5
FRANCES HA: Directed by Noah Baumbach. Written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. Cinematography, Sam
Levy. Editor, Jennifer Lame. Music coordinator, Sara Matarazzo. Starring Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Adam
Driver and Michael Zegen. IFC Films, 2013. R. 86 minutes. 00001
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here are 27-year-olds who have their shit together, but I wasn’t one
of them. If you were, you may watch Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha
as a sort of anthropological study: the still-questing twentysomething,
running into pitfalls and learning (the hard way, of course) that
expectation goes hand-in-hand with entitlement, and neither are in
sync with reality very often.
If you were — or are, or expect to be — a person who has not got life
totally figured out before 30, you may relate a little more closely to Frances,
which awkwardly and lovingly depicts a certain transitional period. It’s a
tough one to nail, the shift from not-quite-adult to actually-an-adult, but
Baumbach and his star and co-writer, Greta Gerwig, wrap this sea change in
humor and awkwardness, centering it in hope and friendship, in acceptance of
failure and necessary mistakes.
Gerwig, once the darling of a certain corner of the indie set (Hannah Takes
the Stairs, Baghead), has long had a peculiar sort of self-consciousness
onscreen, a presence that made her both compelling and painful to watch as,
for example, the younger woman to Ben Stiller’s neurotic Roger in Greenberg.
In Frances, she’s a little older, a little more tired, but still playful and
genuine. Sam Levy’s lush, old-fashioned black-and-white cinematography
(nodding to Manhattan and the French New Wave), makes Gerwig look even
more like a classic movie star than usual, creating a lovely and apt
juxtaposition between the beauty of the film and the mess of Frances’ life.
Frances (whose last name, thankfully, isn’t actually Ha) is an apprentice
dancer and an experienced apartment surfer; the film tracks her journey in
addresses, from Brooklyn to Sacramento to Poughkeepsie and back to New
York. She jokes that she and her best friend, Sofie (Mickey Sumner), are the
same person with different hair, but Sofie is rapidly becoming a very different
person — one with an office job, a serious boyfriend who buys pre-distressed
baseball hats, and less desire to play-fight in the park.
Everything that happens in Frances Ha is tiny and irrelevant, huge and
catastrophic. If you’re too close to the age and situation of the characters (who
are all white and well-educated), you might cringe; if you’re too far from their
experience, you may roll your eyes. Frances Ha isn’t Girls or Tiny Furniture,
but there’s a firm line connecting them — or maybe several. While Baumbach
and Gerwig trace Frances’ uneven path to becoming a “real person,” they, like
Lena Dunham, take the experience of their young, female characters entirely
seriously. Frances is quirky, prone to the occasional bout of oversharing,
unsure how much to trust herself — but the movie isn’t. The big, romantic
score, dotted with perfect pop songs (oh, that all movies could use David
Bowie this well), pushes the boundaries of this intimate story, making it
bigger, making a brief few months in one girl’s ordinary life into the pivot on
which her personal narrative turns.
Baumbach has said his movies are “about squaring who you want to be
with who you actually are.” Years ago, he made the best movie about (mostly
male) post-collegiate flailing, Kicking and Screaming. Now he’s made a better
one about growing up. Frances Ha is a funny, sympathetic, perfect take on the
golden age for not feeling golden about your life — except at those moments
when it’s just right because it’s a little wrong. ■
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John D. Wilson, M.D.
1200 Hilyard St., Suite S-560
541/343-6028
www.TravelClinicOregon.com
Questions?
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at travelclinicoregon.3436028@gmail.com
Questions?
Email
us at travelclinic3436028 @ gmail.com
‘‘ MIRACLE
A
OF A MOVIE ’’ .
‘‘ ★★★★ ’’
‘‘ ★★★★ ’’
‘‘ ★★★★ ’’
‘‘ ★★★★ ’’
GLORIOUS
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IRRESISTIBLY LOVELY ’’
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BIJOU ART CINEMAS
492 EAST 13TH AVENUE
(541) 686-2458 EUGENE
eugeneweekly.com • June 6, 2013
06-06-13 movie.indd 1
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