Review of Frances Ha, directed by Noah Baumbach

I don’t remember the first time I ended up watching Frances Ha, but I know back then it was my introduction to Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. I had lived in New York for college and was moving back home for college, and, like so many other movies I’ve watched during my brief life time, I remembered the feelings it evoked in me.

I saw myself in Frances, although I was much younger than her, and I wanted to go through life in the way and mentality she had for a bit. Minus the men, who can be highly questionable in this movie.

Anyways, I was revisiting Baumbach’s work when I somehow ended up watching White Noise out of boredom, and I randomly remembered the joy I felt when I watched Frances Ha.

So, on a whim, I pressed play on the movie, which was now on Netflix at this point, and relived the magic. And I will say, I ended up thinking a lot of the same feelings I had, except with a more mature perspective.

Let’s get into the review.

Frances, a dancer living in NYC, finds lots of different parts of her life suddenly changing.

If it isn’t obvious from what I wrote before, Frances Ha is the main character in this movie. At the beginning of the movie she’s 27 and seemingly living her best life in New York with her best friend from college: Sophie. Frances is hopeful about the future, but one day Sophie drops big news on her: she’s leaving Frances behind to move to her dream neighborhood, which is in Brooklyn. She’s also moving in with someone else, which breaks Frances’ heart.

Not only is she losing Sophie, but she doesn’t have enough money to stay in the apartment they’ve been living in. She lives out the rest of their lease in the apartment, then she convinces her friends Lev and Benji, who come from better backgrounds financially.

She moves into their spare room, and her relationship with Sophie continues to fracture when she finds out Sophie quit her job, is getting closer to her boyfriend, and is moving to Tokyo.

At the same time Frances is informed that she will not be a part of the holiday dance show, which is a major pay cut for her, leaving Frances struggling yet again. She has to leave Lev and Benji because she cannot afford the rent, and she decides to go home for a bit to Sacramento to reconnect with the people she left behind on the West Coast.

When Frances returns, she stays with a dancer in the family, which is where she finds out about Sophie.

Frances then takes an impulsive trip to France, putting all of her expenses on a credit card. When she returns, she goes to Vassar for a job, and stalks Sophie’s blog on her life in Tokyo. But one day Sophie and her boyfriend, now a fiance, comes to alumni event.

This is where she learns that they’re engaged, and Sophie is unhappy. She’s even had a miscarriage. Frances goes back to the city and finds an apartment in upper Manhattan, where she continues to ruminate over her life right now.

While Frances does eventually find work as a bookkeeper and choreographer, she also reconciles with Sophie. She starts a relationship with Benji, and the movie comes full circle when she decides to write her name down on a mailbox for her apartment, signifying that she’s finally made it, getting her own apartment, which is a massive achievement considering the beginning of the movie.

Overall Thoughts

So not only are there a ton of relevant themes for artists and creatives working in cities like New York City, as well as navigating your late twenties, Frances Ha is just a gorgeous movie.

It’s shot in black and white, and whether Frances is just dancing across the screen and the city, or in her random trip to Paris, it feels like it’s art. I love this movie so much, and I think it’s generally one of my favorite movies.

So much excellence packed into one film.

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