Watched: Frances Ha
I am 23, four years younger than the titular Frances of this film, but I’m already starting to feel some of the anxieties that feed their way through this perfect little film. I am getting married in a few months, but that’s not really growing up in the traditional sense. When it comes to questions of adult responsibility, I’m just as in the dark as I was five years ago.
There is so much going on here - the personal aim to make something of one’s artistic ambitions, the way that close bonds loosen without warning, and coming to terms with a world that’s growing up when you don’t feel ready. I’m at a unique period of my life, where I can talk about looking for a job “in publishing” in the broadest strokes possible (because I can’t legally work again until next summer), without actually taking practical steps to find that sort of work.
Greta Gerwig felt like an awkward presence to begin with, but that soon faded - her unyielding strangeness and childish nature are intoxicating, and you find yourself inhabiting the character within minutes.
The music was a little twee every now and then (Bowie excepted), but this was downright wonderful.