some things extra special to me, i hoard deep within my heart, afraid of sharing them with anyone, fearing that their meaning will waver with each new person who discovers them. a certain movie is encased in this fear, only because it is encased in so much love and joy in my heart and mind. as infantile as it may sound, i have been struggling ever since first seeing this film; do i share this magnificent piece of life, or do i burry it with the other special things that i keep only for myself? well, the answer quite simply boils down to one thing: this is a movie, emily. you are insane. also, because eyes…people have them and have probably seen this. so here i am sharing with you the wonder that France Ha holds.

as if it wasn’t already enough to have Noah Baumbach, a literary and visionary wiz, on board, as a co-writer and director, the the cinema gods went and threw Greta Gerwig, queen of mumblecore, into the mix as the co-writer and starring character of the film. can i even call this slice of heaven “film”? no. heaven is heaven and film is film and even though this slice of heaven is neatly disguised as film, it is heaven.

let me lay it out for you: Greta Gerwig is fascinating to me in every sense. just watch any interview with her. so composed. her voice. do you ever want to have someone else’s voice? you will now. this script has her flare written all over it, literally. she wrote it. she is so talented because she is able to engulf the audience in this weird third dimension, where manly walks and on-the-brink-of-bridget-jones mixed with dance-chic outfits suddenly become desirable and just when you think shit is going to go terribly wrong, it just doesn’t…and a film is made where it is possible for the main character to not fuck someone or fall in love with them or chase after a dude or anything. Lev (Adam Driver) makes an advance at Frances and she shrugs and makes a sound like the one that goes off at the end of a hockey period. like “AHHN”. shut down, adam driver, shut down. maybe you shouldn’t have done those GAP ads? jk, kudos. 

at the end, once everything in the universe is good and even, the characters have nothing to show except for growth…and when i say characters, i simply mean Frances and her friend, Sophie (Mickey Sumner), whose relationship goes through the standard rigamarole, but in a fresh way. Frances is weirdly childlike and outlandish and irresponsible and kind of mad and lost in the world and you might think ripoff of Girls, but don’t because Frances Ha happened at an interesting time…the same time.

did i mention this movie is filmed in black and white?

Gerwig as Frances is like a rose bush that has climbed onto an ugly building. she is the rose bush, clumsily trying to find her way and is accidentally prickly sometimes, but is ultimately really beautiful and important and the wall is like this crumbly shit-hole metaphor for life. and that sounds bad, but it isn’t. it’s so good, because she is so optimistic.

just watch the movie. then go and play fight with someone who doesn’t suck like the prissy dance fart, Grace Gummer, in this film.