[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Severian

 

Pretty good in the Salinger-lite way most Baumbach (and a lot of Wes Anderson) films are. A bit aimless, but generally that works in the film’s favor. Ah, the malaise of emerging adulthood for creative/academic types.

Originally Posted by tw2113

Ah Greta

Originally Posted by Bertrand

Ah Greta too...

ah greta three! hahaha. yeah, she's adorable.

i've somehow ended up watching this about once a year lately, maybe, and always like it, even though her character is so damn cringeworthy, hahahahaha, trying to keep up with the trustafarians and finance bro wags.

*MANY SPOILERS COMING* but hey this is an old movie already

i don't read it as a purely creative/academic thing though, i see mostly a class misfit in a gentrified new york that no longer offers viable options for the aforementioned "creatives." and a middle class person among rich kids she maybe used to know in college.

i mean back in the lydia lunch days she would have been a squatter somewhere in alphabet city, storming the streets with public performances, but in this century she has to fit into some sort of bourgeois respectability, not just mere adulthood, and find a select venue supported by millionaire's donations for their own cultural enjoyment.

so im glad she wakes up to her socioeconomic reality and sorts out her deranged class fantasies, but her solution feels like a bit of a betrayal to me, and maybe jt's even a bit fake? because there is a lot of difficulty even after an awakening. there are no magical solutions, especially after your eyes are open. where is that magical mailbox located? (asking for a friend, lol)

i mean, to borrow an overused term, baumbach himself is a bit of a nepo baby, hahaha, so we can't ask him to delve into the subject of real deprivation and class struggle and rebellion. so for frances it all amounts to just a temporary embarrassment. at the end of the movie she has planted her own flag but more than anything else she's ready to rejoin the dinner parties, aka "society".

but anyway, regardless of what i see as its blind spots, i like the movie a lot, part because of her and part because the french new wave homages are quite charming.

but yeah, it doesn't offer a real out, does it? adapt + comply. which, sure, adaptation is essential for survival but... here i did not see one iota of protest or rebellion, which the french new wave had in spades. she just has longing for consumption and status, and then frustration, and then ultimately an easy american dream style "success".

oh, the bit of psychology that it portrays really well i think is that phase in young woman's lives where they have these very intense friendships that almost feel like romantic relationships but then they drift apart, usually over some man, and it's often the same man the compete for (but not here, although who knows).