Director: John Hyams
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Andrei Arlovski, Dolph Lundgren
A sequel to a not particularly well loved 90's Roland Emmerich Sci-Fi film, I didn't even know that Universal Soldier: Regeneration existed until I saw it mentioned on twitter by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. In need of a testosterone fix, I threw it on yesterday and it met or surpassed all of my expectations. It is common, especially on the internet, to pine for macho 80's action films while complaining that current shoot em ups ain't what they used to be, however good action movies are still being made; they are just harder to find without the aid of survivorship bias. Hyams's second feature is a sincere throwback to the movies that turned Jean-Claude Van Damme into a superstar 25 years ago; it has a lot of practical effects, doesn't feature the tongue-in-cheek post-modernity of The Expendables and could be set during The Cold War. While all three of the leads have posses the screen presence required from them , the real star of the film is Hyams's direction and fight choreography, which is brutal, easy to follow and creative; one long take in the film's climactic action sequence is remarkable and a works as a companion to the winking opening of 2008's JCVD. If you have never liked a movie featuring Van-Damme or Lundgren, you will not like this film, but if you have liked anything featuring them this well-constructed, entertaining, brawny action flick is better than watching Cobra on TBS for the 18th time.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Top Ten of 2012
The Oscars are today and they have prompted me to make my compulsory top 10 of 2012 list. I have been grinding through 2012 movies the past week and there are still several movies that I'd like to see ( THE KID WITH A BIKE, BARBARA, ELENA, LIFE OF PI, HAYWIRE, etc.). All movies I've seen and had a non-festival release in 2012 are eligible for this very, very, very important list.
Honourable mentions and the top ten after the jump
Honourable mentions and the top ten after the jump
Thursday, November 1, 2012
A Liar's Autobiography - 2012 - 2.5 Stars
Directors: Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson, Ben Timlett
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Carol Cleveland
Monty Python's Flying Circus is one of my formative comedic influences, I remember regularly watching The Holy Grail and Parrot Sketch Not Included, a best of compilation on VHS before I turned 12. I didn't understand half the jokes, but the performances, the jokes I did understand and the frequent nudity, which in retrospect my parents probably forgot about, made the the troupe a staple of my pre-adolescence. Over time my pre-adolescent enjoyment slowly morphed into a profound comedic and intellectual respect for what I still consider to be the greatest sketch troupe of all time. So even though I know most reunion projects merely tap into fans nostalgia so they will fork over money before inevitably being disappointed, I was very excited when I saw that A Liar's Autobiography would be premiering at TIFF 2012 and it was one my most anticipated movies of the festival.
A Liar's Autobiography uses previously unheard recordings of Graham Chapman's semi-fictionalized, satirical biography, that were recorded for an unreleased an audiobook and adds new voicework from the living Pythons (minus Eric Idle) while switching between close to a dozen different styles of animation throughout the film. The animation is for the most part excellent (though I would have loved to see a section directed by Terry Gilliam) and the use of several different animation styles lends the film a marginal amount of chaos and surreallism, but everything that surrounds the animation is conventional, but the film thinks otherwise. Chapman's book satirizes vapid celebrity autobiographies and he has an interesting story to tell, but the filmmakers perspective is vastly different from Chapman's. In the film Chapman's story is being told posthumously and the film undoes most of Chapman's satire of celebrity hagiography as the directors turn their film into the type fawning biography Chapman was mocking. Chapman poked fun at overwrought deterministic narrative's about fame, but the directors are such big Python fans that they can't stop themselves from deifying Chapman as a troubled comedy god who left us mere mortals too soon.
The film opens with a story from Chapman's book about a live performance of The Oscar Wilde Sketch. The directors recreate this sketch via animation and voiceover and while the dialogue doesn't change, the timing, the energy and the performances are all slightly off. The punchlines don't land like they should and somehow most of the humour is sucked out of a brilliant piece of comedy. The film ends with the footage of John Cleese's eulogy for Graham Chapman a transcendent eulogy and one of the highlights of the film, but something the directors did not create. These two moments bookend the film and make an compelling argument that the vivacious subversive wit that made Monty Python so special cannot be recreated and reinforce how bland much of this movie is. The film is not terrible, it's breezy and entertaining, but also slight and inessential, like a really well done YouTube animation. Recently I watched most of the original Flying Circus TV series. I didn't watch the final season, a shortened season, that didn't feature John Cleese. I was told it was largely inessential and didn't think much about it, however after watching A Liar's Autobiography, a facsimile of Python I wish I had spent my time watching that final season instead because at least it's the real thing.
Cast: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Carol Cleveland
Monty Python's Flying Circus is one of my formative comedic influences, I remember regularly watching The Holy Grail and Parrot Sketch Not Included, a best of compilation on VHS before I turned 12. I didn't understand half the jokes, but the performances, the jokes I did understand and the frequent nudity, which in retrospect my parents probably forgot about, made the the troupe a staple of my pre-adolescence. Over time my pre-adolescent enjoyment slowly morphed into a profound comedic and intellectual respect for what I still consider to be the greatest sketch troupe of all time. So even though I know most reunion projects merely tap into fans nostalgia so they will fork over money before inevitably being disappointed, I was very excited when I saw that A Liar's Autobiography would be premiering at TIFF 2012 and it was one my most anticipated movies of the festival.
A Liar's Autobiography uses previously unheard recordings of Graham Chapman's semi-fictionalized, satirical biography, that were recorded for an unreleased an audiobook and adds new voicework from the living Pythons (minus Eric Idle) while switching between close to a dozen different styles of animation throughout the film. The animation is for the most part excellent (though I would have loved to see a section directed by Terry Gilliam) and the use of several different animation styles lends the film a marginal amount of chaos and surreallism, but everything that surrounds the animation is conventional, but the film thinks otherwise. Chapman's book satirizes vapid celebrity autobiographies and he has an interesting story to tell, but the filmmakers perspective is vastly different from Chapman's. In the film Chapman's story is being told posthumously and the film undoes most of Chapman's satire of celebrity hagiography as the directors turn their film into the type fawning biography Chapman was mocking. Chapman poked fun at overwrought deterministic narrative's about fame, but the directors are such big Python fans that they can't stop themselves from deifying Chapman as a troubled comedy god who left us mere mortals too soon.
The film opens with a story from Chapman's book about a live performance of The Oscar Wilde Sketch. The directors recreate this sketch via animation and voiceover and while the dialogue doesn't change, the timing, the energy and the performances are all slightly off. The punchlines don't land like they should and somehow most of the humour is sucked out of a brilliant piece of comedy. The film ends with the footage of John Cleese's eulogy for Graham Chapman a transcendent eulogy and one of the highlights of the film, but something the directors did not create. These two moments bookend the film and make an compelling argument that the vivacious subversive wit that made Monty Python so special cannot be recreated and reinforce how bland much of this movie is. The film is not terrible, it's breezy and entertaining, but also slight and inessential, like a really well done YouTube animation. Recently I watched most of the original Flying Circus TV series. I didn't watch the final season, a shortened season, that didn't feature John Cleese. I was told it was largely inessential and didn't think much about it, however after watching A Liar's Autobiography, a facsimile of Python I wish I had spent my time watching that final season instead because at least it's the real thing.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
9.79* - 2012 - 4 Stars
Director: Daniel Gordon
Subject: Ben Johnson's steroid scandal in the Seoul Olympics.
Canadians who consume a lot of American culture and media, like myself, very quickly develop an inferiority complex. I am irrationally excited when I see the Blue Jays, the Raptors or hockey being discussed on ESPN. It doesn't matter why we are being discussed, I am just happy that we are being talked about. To some this may seem like a case of social-media manufactured generational narcissism, but I see the same reaction from fellow Canucks of all ages; even if the discussion is just thirty seconds on PTI about Jeff Frye hitting for the cycle. So even though I was in utero when Ben Johnson set the 100m dash world record and had it taken away during the Seoul Olympics of 1988, I have a strong connection to that race; it is literally a nascent moment for my sports fandom.
9.79* is an engaging, well researched, well shot documentary that also confirms every thought my reptilian sports brain has about this race, the use of PEDs in sports and Carl Lewis's assholery. Gordon biggest coup is interviewing all the participants in the gold medal heat and allowing them to paint a thorough picture of the track and field world in the 1980s. These men all provide a different perspective on the race: Desai Williams speaks about being Ben Johnson's teammate, Calvin Smith's effeminate drawl voices the strongest anti-PED sentiments and Robson De Silva's has a zen like view of the past as he hang glides over Rio De Janiero. The two stars of the race and the documentary are Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and while Johnson's frankness is refreshing, Lewis's slipperiness makes him a much more intriguing character. Lewis's ambitions didn't stop at athletics and in interviews it is clear he is equal parts athlete, celebrity, politician and businessman. He is so interested in protecting himself and his brand that it seems like he is always hiding something. His Machiavellian nature makes him a charismatic heel for this documentary, especially when contrasted with Johnson's frankness, a frankness that is usually only present after someone has already been caught.
The results of the race in Seoul are common knowledge for most sports fans; Gordon recognizes this and doesn't bother hiding those results to construct dramatic tension. Instead he takes information that is public, but not common knowledge and parcels it out in such a way that he creates dramatic tension by obscuring his rhetorical point until the last act of the film when he drops the hammer in a satisfying way. Admittedly, his rhetorical point happens to defend someone who I still consider to be one of Canada's great athletes, vilifies a hated American athlete, plays into my general cynicism about how widespread PED use was and still is and vindicates all the beliefs I've held about Ben Johnson for my whole life. So while others may not share my belief that the final act of the film is brilliant payoff from the restraint shown earlier, Gordon's access and visual style, make the movie one of the most entertaining 30 for 30s and a must watch for fans of the series.
24 years later Ben Johnson's victory and scandal are both two of the biggest in Canadian sports history. It's one of the few stories in Canadian sports history that people around the world remember. Fans of dynastic teams have a wealth of experience to draw back on Yankees fans can root for the current team or be nostalgic about Bernie Williams, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio and Babe Ruth. When you routinely root for mediocre non-public teams you must cherish the moments in the spotlight you get. In 1988 Ben Johnson had an iconic track and field performances and outperformed a legendary Olympic athlete from our biggest rival, then he tested positive for stanozolol. At least he was the lead story on ESPN for awhile.
Subject: Ben Johnson's steroid scandal in the Seoul Olympics.
Canadians who consume a lot of American culture and media, like myself, very quickly develop an inferiority complex. I am irrationally excited when I see the Blue Jays, the Raptors or hockey being discussed on ESPN. It doesn't matter why we are being discussed, I am just happy that we are being talked about. To some this may seem like a case of social-media manufactured generational narcissism, but I see the same reaction from fellow Canucks of all ages; even if the discussion is just thirty seconds on PTI about Jeff Frye hitting for the cycle. So even though I was in utero when Ben Johnson set the 100m dash world record and had it taken away during the Seoul Olympics of 1988, I have a strong connection to that race; it is literally a nascent moment for my sports fandom.
9.79* is an engaging, well researched, well shot documentary that also confirms every thought my reptilian sports brain has about this race, the use of PEDs in sports and Carl Lewis's assholery. Gordon biggest coup is interviewing all the participants in the gold medal heat and allowing them to paint a thorough picture of the track and field world in the 1980s. These men all provide a different perspective on the race: Desai Williams speaks about being Ben Johnson's teammate, Calvin Smith's effeminate drawl voices the strongest anti-PED sentiments and Robson De Silva's has a zen like view of the past as he hang glides over Rio De Janiero. The two stars of the race and the documentary are Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis and while Johnson's frankness is refreshing, Lewis's slipperiness makes him a much more intriguing character. Lewis's ambitions didn't stop at athletics and in interviews it is clear he is equal parts athlete, celebrity, politician and businessman. He is so interested in protecting himself and his brand that it seems like he is always hiding something. His Machiavellian nature makes him a charismatic heel for this documentary, especially when contrasted with Johnson's frankness, a frankness that is usually only present after someone has already been caught.
The results of the race in Seoul are common knowledge for most sports fans; Gordon recognizes this and doesn't bother hiding those results to construct dramatic tension. Instead he takes information that is public, but not common knowledge and parcels it out in such a way that he creates dramatic tension by obscuring his rhetorical point until the last act of the film when he drops the hammer in a satisfying way. Admittedly, his rhetorical point happens to defend someone who I still consider to be one of Canada's great athletes, vilifies a hated American athlete, plays into my general cynicism about how widespread PED use was and still is and vindicates all the beliefs I've held about Ben Johnson for my whole life. So while others may not share my belief that the final act of the film is brilliant payoff from the restraint shown earlier, Gordon's access and visual style, make the movie one of the most entertaining 30 for 30s and a must watch for fans of the series.
24 years later Ben Johnson's victory and scandal are both two of the biggest in Canadian sports history. It's one of the few stories in Canadian sports history that people around the world remember. Fans of dynastic teams have a wealth of experience to draw back on Yankees fans can root for the current team or be nostalgic about Bernie Williams, Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Joe Dimaggio and Babe Ruth. When you routinely root for mediocre non-public teams you must cherish the moments in the spotlight you get. In 1988 Ben Johnson had an iconic track and field performances and outperformed a legendary Olympic athlete from our biggest rival, then he tested positive for stanozolol. At least he was the lead story on ESPN for awhile.
Everyday - 2012 - 2 1/2 Stars
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Shirley Henderson, John Simm, Johnny Lynch
Michael Winterbottom's new film Everyday was commissioned by BBC Channel 4, who wanted Winterbottom to make a story about the prison system. It is the story of a mother of four and her husband who is in prison for reasons we don't know and never discover. It's shot entirely in digital, has a documentary aesethic and I assume is heavily improvised. The film has one large extra-textual conceit, it was filmed over 5 years so the children in the film could age properly throughout shooting. Bad aging makeup and multiple child actors playing the same character is something that irks me, so while I intellectually appreciated Winterbottom's choice and the producers for humouring his obsession, ultimately the payoff for this decision is nothing more than a "hey, that's kind of cool" and it only enriches the films on the margins.
The film itself is a low-key naturalistic British drama about a middle class family and a determined mother struggling to make ends meet. The title Everyday is appropriate because it tends to focus on minor day to day events for a family who's patriarch is temporarily incarcerated . Winterbottom and co-screenwriter Laurence Coriat avoid the melodramatic climaxes one would expect from a movie about a single mother with an imprisoned husband and instead focus on how one accepts and adapts to this major change on a daily basis. As with the children's aging in the film, I enjoyed Winterbottom's intimate-micro perspective of a family on a cerebral level, but no others. Shirley Henderson gives a great performance as an overworked mother, but the low stakes throughout the movie make everything feel inconsequential; as if we were watching a collection of the well shot and edited home videos. I commend Winterbottom for trying an interesting experiment, I just wish the results were more dynamic.
Cast: Shirley Henderson, John Simm, Johnny Lynch
Michael Winterbottom's new film Everyday was commissioned by BBC Channel 4, who wanted Winterbottom to make a story about the prison system. It is the story of a mother of four and her husband who is in prison for reasons we don't know and never discover. It's shot entirely in digital, has a documentary aesethic and I assume is heavily improvised. The film has one large extra-textual conceit, it was filmed over 5 years so the children in the film could age properly throughout shooting. Bad aging makeup and multiple child actors playing the same character is something that irks me, so while I intellectually appreciated Winterbottom's choice and the producers for humouring his obsession, ultimately the payoff for this decision is nothing more than a "hey, that's kind of cool" and it only enriches the films on the margins.
The film itself is a low-key naturalistic British drama about a middle class family and a determined mother struggling to make ends meet. The title Everyday is appropriate because it tends to focus on minor day to day events for a family who's patriarch is temporarily incarcerated . Winterbottom and co-screenwriter Laurence Coriat avoid the melodramatic climaxes one would expect from a movie about a single mother with an imprisoned husband and instead focus on how one accepts and adapts to this major change on a daily basis. As with the children's aging in the film, I enjoyed Winterbottom's intimate-micro perspective of a family on a cerebral level, but no others. Shirley Henderson gives a great performance as an overworked mother, but the low stakes throughout the movie make everything feel inconsequential; as if we were watching a collection of the well shot and edited home videos. I commend Winterbottom for trying an interesting experiment, I just wish the results were more dynamic.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Something in the Air (Après mai) - 2012 - 2 1/2 Stars
Director: Oliver Assayas
Cast: Clément Métayer, Lola Créton, Felix Armand, Carole Combes
Making autobiographical movies is a tricky proposition; the director must walk a thin line between using their experience to craft a detailed, naturalistic aesthetic and telling stories that no one else cares about. Something in the Air is a fictionalized adaption of Oliver Assayas's non-fiction essay A Post-May Adolescence. It follows Gilles, an Assayas surrogate, during the summer after his second to last year in high school as he bounces between different French socialist organizations, hippy communes and his father's work while he tries to find himself romantically, artistically and professionally.
The film has a loose, meandering structure, which is designed to mimic our hero's lack of focus as he travels from group to group. At times it's a successful series of focused vignettes, but as the revolutionary movements Gilles is associated with begin to splinter and lose power, so does the film. The film's first hour is dynamic and lively, but the second half loses that energy as the story shifts to one of what happens when youthful vivaciousness fades. The film's second half rings true thematically and historically, but it's a slog to watch the dissolution of revolutionary movement not via coup, but via waning interest and mild evolutions in maturity.
Assayas's strong authorial voice gives the film a strong sense of place, but also causes it to veer into self-indulgence. Assayas digs deep into his own record collection, which gives the film a sense of time and place beyond a generic "the 70's". The soundtrack replaces 70's staples from Sticky Fingers and Who' Next (which I doubt they could afford had they wanted to use them anyways) and replaces them with Captain Beefheart and other more eclectic musicians that Assayas has a connection with. Assayas indulging his musical taste is delightful, the conversations name checking his personal favorite political philosophers are less so. I appreciate that the high-schooler's in the film possess an intellectual surety that can only be held by teenagers. To them the choice between being Trotskyite or a Leninist is the equivalent to the choice between Communism and Fascism, but this specificity is draining during long conversations where Assayas references his favorite philosophers even as it gives the film the same detailed textures I liked about his soundtrack.
Roger Ebert ended his review of Midnight in Paris, by saying , "I'm wearying of movies that are for 'everybody' — which means, nobody in particular." I appreciate that Assayas made a movie that is for someone in particular, but as the movie dragged on it felt like I was watching friends tell a story that I wasn't present for and was littered with inside jokes I didn't get. There is someone in particular who will love this movie, but it's not me.
Cast: Clément Métayer, Lola Créton, Felix Armand, Carole Combes
Making autobiographical movies is a tricky proposition; the director must walk a thin line between using their experience to craft a detailed, naturalistic aesthetic and telling stories that no one else cares about. Something in the Air is a fictionalized adaption of Oliver Assayas's non-fiction essay A Post-May Adolescence. It follows Gilles, an Assayas surrogate, during the summer after his second to last year in high school as he bounces between different French socialist organizations, hippy communes and his father's work while he tries to find himself romantically, artistically and professionally.
The film has a loose, meandering structure, which is designed to mimic our hero's lack of focus as he travels from group to group. At times it's a successful series of focused vignettes, but as the revolutionary movements Gilles is associated with begin to splinter and lose power, so does the film. The film's first hour is dynamic and lively, but the second half loses that energy as the story shifts to one of what happens when youthful vivaciousness fades. The film's second half rings true thematically and historically, but it's a slog to watch the dissolution of revolutionary movement not via coup, but via waning interest and mild evolutions in maturity.
Assayas's strong authorial voice gives the film a strong sense of place, but also causes it to veer into self-indulgence. Assayas digs deep into his own record collection, which gives the film a sense of time and place beyond a generic "the 70's". The soundtrack replaces 70's staples from Sticky Fingers and Who' Next (which I doubt they could afford had they wanted to use them anyways) and replaces them with Captain Beefheart and other more eclectic musicians that Assayas has a connection with. Assayas indulging his musical taste is delightful, the conversations name checking his personal favorite political philosophers are less so. I appreciate that the high-schooler's in the film possess an intellectual surety that can only be held by teenagers. To them the choice between being Trotskyite or a Leninist is the equivalent to the choice between Communism and Fascism, but this specificity is draining during long conversations where Assayas references his favorite philosophers even as it gives the film the same detailed textures I liked about his soundtrack.
Roger Ebert ended his review of Midnight in Paris, by saying , "I'm wearying of movies that are for 'everybody' — which means, nobody in particular." I appreciate that Assayas made a movie that is for someone in particular, but as the movie dragged on it felt like I was watching friends tell a story that I wasn't present for and was littered with inside jokes I didn't get. There is someone in particular who will love this movie, but it's not me.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Frances Ha - 2012 - 4 1/4* Stars
Director: Noah Baumbach
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Zegen, Adam Driver
In a world full of formulaic mainstream comedies and formulaic indie's that are generously called comedies, Noah Baumbach's newest film Frances Ha manages to be as funny as the crude, banter heavy mainstream comedies, while having stronger character work than the multitude of indies about post-college ennui. Frances Ha is a movie about the friendship between Frances (Gerwig) and Sophie (Sumner) and how these two women-children's relationship changes as they grapple with impending maturity and responsibility. A generic premise, but one that gains traction from focusing on female friendship (this movie passes the Bechdel test with flying colours) and strong execution.
The coming of age indie is a tired genre and though Frances Ha uses some genre tropes Baumbach and Gerwig's script is so singular that it never feels derivative. Frances Ha's originality is a function of Greta Gerwig, who gives an amazing naturalistic performance; eventhough her character is chock full of eccentricities, they all feel true to life and not screenwriter created manic-pixie dream girl "look at how much of an individual I am" traits. In addition to Gerwig's great performance the screenplay economically creates well-formed characters in short amounts of screen time via specificity. Hip movies walk a thin line between referencing ephemera to create a positive association with the audience and using ephemera as a touchstone to provide information about characters. Frances Ha mainly sticks to the latter; characters aren't working on "their screenplay" they have fixed the second act to their Gremlins 3 screenplay. These details peppered throughout help world-build and contribute to the great chemistry between the ensemble cast.
Frances Ha was shot in black and white; in a post-screening Q&A Baumbach cited Manhattan; an obvious inspiration. The decision to shoot it in black and white is not just an homage it gives Frances Ha a strong visual aesthetic that was missing from previous Baumbach films and separates it from the generic sepia-toned, digital look of a lot of coming of age indies. This aesthetic is present on the soundtrack where classic rock and music snatched from French New Wave films refreshingly replace the Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and other cabin-dwelling, mandolin playing, indie music that are used to show melancholy, inspiration or any other emotion that one might feel in an existential crisis. Shooting in black and white and using classic rock are hardly groundbreaking decisions but it is indicative that every decision in film was purposefully made. On the surface, this is a generic coming of age story, but the direction, acting, writing are all elevated and combine to produce one of Baumbach's strongest films.
*The quarter star is to indicate I preferred this to The Squid and The Whale which I think is a 4 star movie.
Cast: Greta Gerwig, Mickey Sumner, Michael Zegen, Adam Driver
In a world full of formulaic mainstream comedies and formulaic indie's that are generously called comedies, Noah Baumbach's newest film Frances Ha manages to be as funny as the crude, banter heavy mainstream comedies, while having stronger character work than the multitude of indies about post-college ennui. Frances Ha is a movie about the friendship between Frances (Gerwig) and Sophie (Sumner) and how these two women-children's relationship changes as they grapple with impending maturity and responsibility. A generic premise, but one that gains traction from focusing on female friendship (this movie passes the Bechdel test with flying colours) and strong execution.
The coming of age indie is a tired genre and though Frances Ha uses some genre tropes Baumbach and Gerwig's script is so singular that it never feels derivative. Frances Ha's originality is a function of Greta Gerwig, who gives an amazing naturalistic performance; eventhough her character is chock full of eccentricities, they all feel true to life and not screenwriter created manic-pixie dream girl "look at how much of an individual I am" traits. In addition to Gerwig's great performance the screenplay economically creates well-formed characters in short amounts of screen time via specificity. Hip movies walk a thin line between referencing ephemera to create a positive association with the audience and using ephemera as a touchstone to provide information about characters. Frances Ha mainly sticks to the latter; characters aren't working on "their screenplay" they have fixed the second act to their Gremlins 3 screenplay. These details peppered throughout help world-build and contribute to the great chemistry between the ensemble cast.
Frances Ha was shot in black and white; in a post-screening Q&A Baumbach cited Manhattan; an obvious inspiration. The decision to shoot it in black and white is not just an homage it gives Frances Ha a strong visual aesthetic that was missing from previous Baumbach films and separates it from the generic sepia-toned, digital look of a lot of coming of age indies. This aesthetic is present on the soundtrack where classic rock and music snatched from French New Wave films refreshingly replace the Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and other cabin-dwelling, mandolin playing, indie music that are used to show melancholy, inspiration or any other emotion that one might feel in an existential crisis. Shooting in black and white and using classic rock are hardly groundbreaking decisions but it is indicative that every decision in film was purposefully made. On the surface, this is a generic coming of age story, but the direction, acting, writing are all elevated and combine to produce one of Baumbach's strongest films.
*The quarter star is to indicate I preferred this to The Squid and The Whale which I think is a 4 star movie.
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