![]() Was born when she was, given the sorcery she conjures up in her debut feature. The 19th century's catch-all diagnosis for female disturbance, "hysteria," was relatively enlightened: At least the women weren't being burned at the stake. Jean-Martin Charcot and his star teenage patient. Watch a clip from the film "Augustine," a look at the relationship between pioneering 19th century French neurologist Dr. And maybe "Frances Ha" is just the ghost orchid of independent cinema. Gerwig's work here is fragile, delicate, subject to bruising something that could wither under too much attention. But "Frances Ha" also marks the rare instance in which an actress has the perfect role at the perfect time. The payoff to that scene is poignant beyond words.Įn route to Frances' self-realization, there are moments in which the movie falters, forces a joke or leaves a line hanging in the air like old wash. ![]() But at the same time, during a dinner party, she is capable of delivering as moving a description of what true love means as has ever been included in a motion picture. Sadder still, she goes back to her old college to work as a volunteer. She takes an impulsive two-day trip to Paris, but spends it alone. Who repeatedly dubs her "undateable") she's not even really a tenant. How, after all, does one define Frances? She's not really a dancer, she's not really a waitress. Sophie doesn't define what she's done as betrayal, and neither would Frances, but definitions aren't her strong suit. It's a novelistic moment: The heroine suddenly seeing that her view of the world is merely that. Frances says no, wisely, only to learn that Sophie is moving out, to share an apartment in TriBeCa ("It's where I've always wanted to be"). Then, as he senses Frances may be changing her mind, he shifts back to offense ("Let's move in together!"). It's a wonderfully written scene, rich in uncomfortable truth: Dan, crushed by rejection, assumes a defensive crouch ("This hasn't been working for a while…"). Frances declines, partly because she'd rather not, partly because it would separate her from best friend/roommate Sophie (a miscast At the beginning of the story, Frances is asked by boyfriend du jour Dan ( What happens? Various crises of confidence, and heart. Someone like Frances, a dancer without investment portfolio, or even a real apartment, who lives footloose out of necessity-not, like most of her friends, amusement-is a truly endangered species. Allen has never had to be: The city has become a theme park for trust-fund babies, in which la vie bohème is a pricey fashion statement. The film is also honest about New York City in a way Mr. Will possess an irresistibly lovely, melancholic acknowledgment that love is impossible, and that the more candid a young woman is, the less eligible she becomes in the standard romantic sweepstakes. Everyone has an opinion, of course some people probably think the Sistine Chapel's ceiling is a little busy.įor others, the glorious "Frances Ha," co-written by Mr. Seminal, microbudgeted "Funny Ha Ha" (with which it bears too many similarities not to be an homage). Baumbach's seventh film to be quirky bordering on precious, a Brooklyn hipster's version of Latest feature becoming part of an online-dating questionnaire: "Favorite book?" "Beach or mountains?" "How do you feel about 'Frances Ha'?" Careful: Your answer could render you, like Frances herself, "undateable." Watch a clip from the film "Frances Ha." A New York woman apprentices for a dance company (though she's not really a dancer), and throws herself headlong into her dreams, even as their possible reality dwindles. Spock actually has emotions is a device as old as "Star Trek" itself "Spock Cries," at this point, feels less fresh than "Garbo Speaks." But Hollywood makes movies for children, and nothing better represents the comfort of the oft-told fairy tale than "Star Trek," even in IMAX 3-D. "What's that even like?") Revealing that the half-human Mr. ("Are you guys fighting?" Kirk asks her, breathlessly. Spock's on-again/off-again girlfriend, Uhura, who is having her own problems with the Vulcan. "Sometimes I want to rip the bangs off his head," Kirk says to Mr. That, and a lippy regard for a cultural legacy. The others are equally well used, and while the action is often electric, it's the relationships that matter. Spock is played, blessedly, by the drily funny Makes the roguish James Tiberius Kirk a charismatic swashbuckler, always willing to bend a rule. But again, this is because the new "Star Trek" mixes mischief with respect, and spot-on casting.
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