Frances Ha

Frances Ha played at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival to a packed house and an enthusiastic audience charmed by the collaborative effort between director Noah Baumbach (Margot at the Wedding) and his co-writer/star Greta Gerwig (Damsels in Distress). The black & white comedy stars Gerwig as Frances, a would-be dancer in a co-dependent relationship with her best friend Sophie (Mickey Summer) who becomes unmoored when Sophie moves out to be with her boyfriend. Gerwig is charming as always as the hopeful but depressed Frances, and the film’s tone owes more than a bit to Woody Allen’s Manhattan, with dialogue that is more naturalistic but almost as clever.