Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's "Frances Ha"

i feel that girls and other shows are generally more canny than their critics recognize

but i think folks have a right to be sick of seeing certain types of characters

guess I should check out "Girls," eh

Social status of characters is only a small part of what makes a movie, I wish it didn't get that unreasonable amount of attention. Also, I don't think we are overdosing on Hannah and Frances types of characters, to begin with.

actually it tends to get ignored in American movies or "taken for granted." Stillman and Baumbach are unique in this regard (Linklater too, although I have to think about him for a moment).

Yeah I was being unclear, I meant: for Girls and Frances Ha, I wish it didn't get that unreasonable amount of attention.

privilege as a meme

i've kind of had it with the 'manic pixie dream girl' critique, tbh.

like i feel like it was useful for a while but at some point it stopped being used to convey actual criticism and basically just turned into 'aha, another MPDG!'

privilege is often relative, and I say that as a white employed New Yorker w/ cancer & health insurance.

really loved this movie -- it had a purity of intent and execution that was surprising, given its DANGEROUS subject matter of privileged white ppl/brooklyn/late-20's/ennui.

kind of like NB and GG just ignored the potential pitfalls and avoided the super-self-consciousness of reference, and just made a really nice movie.

"privilege as a meme" in these contexts (criticism, that is) pretty much seems to operate as a wedge you can drive between yourself and your own perceived inauthenticity. hence its inexhaustible appeal--calling out privilege is like immunizing yourself against your own social milieu. (again, just in this context.)

no one's mentioned how great Dean + Britta looked

Don't they always.

Tonight/Friday at the Angelika in suburban Virginia near W. D.C.

JOIN US FRI 5/31 FOLLOWING THE 7:30PM SHOW FOR A SKYPE Q&A WITH STAR & CO-WRITER GRETA GERWIG

"privilege as a meme" in these contexts (criticism, that is) pretty much seems to operate as a wedge you can drive between yourself and your own perceived inauthenticity. hence its inexhaustible appeal--calling out privilege is like immunizing yourself against your own social milieu. (again, just in this context.)

― ryan, Tuesday, May 28, 2013 3:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otmfm

The privilege conversation surrounding Girls etc. is ridiculous. Most characters in movies, esp rom com type things, are privileged people just don't like the idea of people (like hannah hovarth, frances) who have things they didn't "earn" in the marketplace, which implies that there are people - the professional class - who deserve their privilege. Basically i think this kind of anti-hipsterism is reactionary bc it wants to conceal the arbitrary basis of inequality in capitalist societies.

― Treeship, Tuesday, May 28, 2013 11:56 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this also seems right. I don't know if it's "ridiculous", but the particular American dislike for "unearned" wealth/freedom/leisure doesn't really come out of any radical critique of class or wealth inequality, but out of a feeling that these things don't comport with the meritocracy we believe we live in, and with the protestant work ethic.

cant wait to watch FraHa

NoBau GreGer FraHa

otm

What is a gabbneb baby????

waterface.....

baumbach makes another movie about bored rich people milling about. can't wait.

though on further reflection maybe it's an indictment of me that i've been friends with/dated character types from all his movies ... maybe i'll see this.

sounds like u have a... spectrum of thoughts on this film

you could be right, hungry

though on further reflection maybe it's an indictment of me that i've been friends with/dated character types from all his movies ... maybe i'll see this.

no it is an indictment that you've dated women like Frances Ha.

baumbach makes another movie about bored rich people milling about. can't wait.

― Spectrum, Friday, May 31, 2013 2:02 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you seem to be bored and milling about, are you rich?

tbf most good movies are abt bored rich people milling about

gotta chuck Austen, Eliot, James, Trollope in the toilet.

you seem to be bored and milling about, are you rich?

― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, May 31, 2013 3:06 PM (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i piss liquid gold. i'm like an x-man mutant, it's a pretty horrible thing to live with.

I prefer ecstatic rich people prancing hither and thither

gonna see this tomorrow.

pain & gain already left theaters here, so i guess this is what's left.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/you-havent-seen-frances-ha-until-youve-seen-it-in,32634/

It's funny because one of the two places it's screening at here just opened and one of their main selling points is having enormous screens in all their auditoriums.

really really liked this

tbf most good movies are abt bored rich people milling about

otm

really loved the trip to paris part.

― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Monday, May 13, 2013 9:27 AM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark

loved how mundane it was, perfectly captures that vibe of when u fly someplace for no reason and have nothing to do there

i just saw it. felt like it was kind of average, maybe slightly above-average, instance of a kind of film that i generally don't like very much. accordingly, i chuckled a few times and was charmed by a few scenes that were basically above-average versions of scenes i've seen in movies-like-this, but was mostly kind of restless and occasionally irritated.

i give it one pfffffft.

should have seen the croods at the dollar cinema.

maybe adults-who-talk-like-children is sociologically accurate but boy does it wear on me

best part of movie was this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-GkwIRbLw8

..and then he had to ruin it by playing it again, in an ironic mode, as a kind of punchline.

i think baumy has a great knack for observing human behavior

was that the species?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geVZYCcAdBc

i just saw it. felt like it was kind of average, maybe slightly above-average, instance of a kind of film that i generally don't like very much. accordingly, i chuckled a few times and was charmed by a few scenes that were basically above-average versions of scenes i've seen in movies-like-this, but was mostly kind of restless and occasionally irritated.

it's a sharp sociological study -- I know MEN like this. But the pleasure isn't simply mimetic: I think he got off laughs at their expense while still retaining affection for the type. And, most importantly, it's 86 minutes long.

but I don't think Manhattan is a great film either so

You're completely insane

stick your head in a trough, waterboy

otm re: manhattan

i think waterface is otm in regard to manhattan. although i don't know if it's a great film or if i just love it, and whether or not i should make a distinction between these two things.

'noah baumbach' and 'greta gerwig's fraces ha

Laughed a lot at the "How about we fake fight?" scene.

Loved how this felt more like an unpredictable short story or novella than a more standard screenplay. Ad the black-and-white brought me back to seeing Stranger Than Paradise, She's Gotta Have It, etc., at the arthouse as a teenager (saw it at a mainstream-arty multiplex).

Saw Dean Wareham in the credits. He must've been one of the Paris-convo dinner-party guests, or was he somewhere else?

This also made me think about how people (esp in their 20s) fantasize about compatible roommates as much as true love.