Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's "Frances Ha"

Alumni party scene shot Vassar alumni house

Shot at

I thought this was much more enjoyable than it had any right to be. Definitely better than Greenberg.

i liked greenberg, even if it was a little too typically indie. i preferred squid and the whale. found frances ha affecting just for the life crisis/career crisis stuff, and felt empathic towards greta gerwig's character (but only after that dinner table scene, up to then, she was unbearably smug), but i also mostly just hate her (didnt mind her in damsels though, just because there i think she actually moved past her default mode a bit), and couldnt get past my hatred for how flat and 1D she is as an actress. i dont mind quirky, but shes just much too knowing. can she actually even act? her whole thing in so many films ive seen with her seems to be about how we are in on the act of her trying to act, like 'look at me acting!' good things about this film - its like an old 70s/80s new york film - the guys look like theyre from an old jim jarmusch movie. funny how we dont see actors (italian/european/'ethnic-white') who look like that anymore. but when will directors realise that making your film in black and white (esp DIGITAL B&W) does not instantly give your film profundity or depth.

"Squid and the Whale" remains the best Baumbach film by miles and miles.

OTM but Frances Ha would probably be No. 2 for me.

Ditto. I watched K&S again a few months ago and could barely finish it.

Squid and the Whale really is a great movie and seems way beyond his other work.

I realize there's another thread for it, but am I missing out by not seeing Margot At The Wedding?

Margot is the only film of his I haven't liked.

It's not bad but it made me feel pretty shitty. Maybe partially because I saw it at a matinee in an affluent suburb and it was me and about 10 senior citizens.

It's awesome

Margot was how I discovered Karen Dalton's "Something on Your Mind," and that would have been enough for me right there. There were other things I liked too--the kid's performance is one thing that comes to mind. Didn't affect me as much as The Squid and the Whale, though.

I have this half-baked theory about Baumbach films that the divorce-damaged kids in Squid and the Whale are sympathetic because they're kids, but that Baumbach's other characters tend to be like kids from the same experience and milieu who are older but never really grew up, and they stop being as sympathetic.

Margot was how I discovered Karen Dalton's "Something on Your Mind,

Let Me Make You A Cool Mixtape direction

Well...throw in Kenneth Anger and the guy who made Mean Streets and Who's That Knocking at My Door, too.

I think he's an indie "it" guy but this movie is the only place i can think of where he was dreamy. On Girls his character can be pretty dark at times, and is always a little "off" and not in a cute way.

― Treeship, Tuesday, May 28, 2013 8:38 AM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

way late on this, but false^

also GG looks like nellie mckay

gg got a gg nom

I'm sort of agnostic about Baumbach - his movies get really close to something I like/appreciate/get something out of, and I can't tell if that's ironically what makes them good or what makes them, you know, fall short - but his pile of glass gag in "Kicking and Screaming" is one of my all time favorite jokes.

Wasn't a dedicated Gerwig thread, so.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/greta-gerwig-star-cbs-how-679633

ok i am gonna call that 'how i met greta gerwig' from now on, i don't care if that doesn't make sense

this movie sucked 1 butt

Pretty, but aggravating. Something like the cinematic equivalent of what its prettiest (yet sill aggravating) character might call "undateable."

fantastic movie! i'm amazed this thread hasn't been revived for a year.

anyway check this if you liked the film, and avoid it like the plague if you didn't. Gerwig goes through *all 42* takes of the 28 seconds-long 'scene in the bathroom' (which she co-wrote) making notes on each one. in the end Baumbach went back and used 'Take 29' anyway, having made his actors go through a full hour of unnecessary re-takes. i don't think i've read a piece like it before, ever.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/12/magazine/one-scene-42-takes-and-2-hours-in-a-bathroom-stall.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

trailer for the new one seems really whit stillman (like, more so than usual) - quite excited

he doesn't sit about that lad.

we can start a nu thread

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=14&v=TL-B8SdE6D0

god, this is stilted - I don't expect better of Gerwig, but Baumbach feels like he's regressing the more contact he has with mumblecore people

frances ha > while we're young > mistress america is a v good run of movies imo fyi

baumbach is the closest thing to rohmer that currently exists and roughly no one presently cares but whatever i guess

deserves its own thread

Clearly Hong Sang Soo is the modern Rohmer. And I care a lot about that being acknowledged!

NB not really anywhere close to ER

and yeah you ppl have to get less fucking lazy about starting threads

what about greenberg

noah baumbach is the closest thing to 2004 - 2007 woody allen that currently exists, kinda like late woody allen only with less visual finesse. frederik one trillion percent otm.

noah baumbach is the closest thing to 2004 - 2007 woody allen that currently exists,

no need to be insulting

I liked this movie. Baumbach and Gerwig push whimsy so far out that it's in danger of just drifting away yet it never does. Some of the best dialogue I've heard in an American movie too.

frances Ha or MIstress America?

just saw the latter - some really LOL moments at the ex's house in that one.

MA. The ex's house scenes are choreographed like a ballet (Dean Wareham is the only sour note).

yeah otm. baumbachs timing / dialogue / editing have been so strong in these last few

even like throw away lines just ring perfectly to me like when they first arrive at the connecticut house and the guy is like "holy shit those pregnant women are super smart"

YOU PPL BETTER NOT BE TALKIN BOUT MISTRESS AMERICA

whadya mean "YOU PPL"

i loved when the leftover pregnant lady finally acknowledged that they kept offering her alcohol to drink

Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig's "Mistress America"

Not sure if I hated Damsels in Distress or just wasn't in the mood for it. I like the film before it and like some of the film after it, so I don't think Noel Baumbach's gone off the Wes Anderson deep end. Megalyn Echikunwoke was incredibly beautiful. Thought for sure I spotted Lauren Ambrose from Six Feet Under in a classroom scene, but she's not listed in the credits, so I guess not. Still haven't seen Mistress America.

? damsels in distress is a whit stillman movie

Um, oops...the whole time I'm thinking, "This is the same guy that made The Squid & the Whale." And I almost made mention of the Metropolitan allusions.

I don't think it changes my reaction to the film, although it does help explain a lot.

#NotAllGerwigsAreBaumbachs

Although to be fair this thread at times served as a "Rolling Greta Gerwig" one.