Frances Ha 2013

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: Writing with Gerwig, Baumbach has created a fey, sneakily charming generational touchstone on a par with Annie Hall and his own Gen Y col-grad comedy Kicking and Screaming. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Frances Ha is sharply focused on a genuine life issue that doesn't get much play in movies: the challenges of platonic love and of the complicated passions of friendship. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Has the earnest, wonky charm of a homemade valentine. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Ms. Gerwig, who has effortless, behind-the-beat verbal timing, also possesses a knack for physical comedy, an enviable ability to obliterate the difference between clumsiness and grace. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Baumbach has a hard time letting go of the notion that drama means building to humiliation. When he does, though, Frances Ha is beautiful and surprising. Read more

John Anderson, Wall Street Journal: Perhaps Ms. Gerwig is the greatest actress alive. And maybe "Frances Ha" is just the ghost orchid of independent cinema. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Baumbach ... makes the film a celebration of Gerwig's coltish, goofball appeal. Read more

Peter Debruge, Variety: You gotta love Greta Gerwig: Even as the radiant mumblecore star's Hollywood stock continues to rise, the actress remains true to her dramatic roots. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, AV Club: Quietly, empathetically, and without ever apologizing for the lead's impulsive idiocy, Frances Ha charts the character's dawning independence and acceptance of adulthood. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Like Gerwig's performance, it's natural, it's realistic, perfectly believable. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Nothing really happens in ''Frances Ha'' and yet the film takes us on an emotional journey. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie's a love letter to an actress and her character, but by the end you may feel like an intervention is more in order. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: The dialogue and editing are zippy and generally charming, combining with the tart observations of 20-something culture to create a nice frisson. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The film may be small, but it's really good. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: It's a skimpy, overextended riff, but some of the seemingly tossed-off moments are lovely. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: The obvious love of New York City echoes Woody Allen at his best. But "Frances Ha" is very much its own film, a story of life and love and messy rooms. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: But there's just something so relentlessly likable about put-upon, impoverished Frances (Greta Gerwig) that it almost doesn't matter that her New York is just one big Williamsburg. Read more

Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly: Shot in inky black and white and bristling with performances that feel captured on the fly, Baumbach's best film since 2005's The Squid and the Whale is both a nod and a throwback to the French New Wave. Read more

Wesley Morris, Grantland: One of the happiest sights you'll see all summer is a montage of Gerwig running and twirling across Chinatown with David Bowie's "Modern Love" on the soundtrack. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter: An exhilarating black-and-white New York seriocomedy from Noah Baumbach with a stellar star turn by co-writer Greta Gerwig. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: An American independent film (shot in luminous black and white by Sam Levy) that feels off the cuff but is in fact exactly made by a filmmaker in total control of his resources. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: A modern fairy tale about a girl whose golden heart refuses to tarnish. Read more

David Thomson, The New Republic: This is an odd film (creepier than it knows), and even if you feel the atmospheric company of Dunham-ism, with a little of Whit Stillman, Henry Jaglom, and Woody Allen, the core influence on Noah Baumbach's film is fifty years older or more. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Late-blooming 20-somethings have never been so perfectly captured -- and Gerwig has never been more appealing -- than in this funny, tender, life-affirming movie. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Frances is an artist whose medium is life itself, and Baumbach, his camera open with calm adoration, channels her waves of wonder and possibility. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: While Gerwig's gentleness gives Baumbach's work a new warmth, his touch gives her a new maturity. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: There's a touch of Gracie Allen in Frances, an indomitable blithe spirit who lives happily within a bubble-world of her own construction. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Aiming for lightness but landing with a thud, "Frances Ha" is a well-meaning blunder. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: This is "Girls" minus the dark stuff. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: A black-and-white salute to the French New Wave (the score is borrowed from Georges Delerue, composer of many a Truffaut and Godard film) that manages to be very much of this moment ... Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: It's impossible not to fall hard for Greta Gerwig, who wrote the script with Baumbach and plays Frances with such smart, rumpled radiance that you bask in her glow. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Baumbach usually builds his films around difficult protagonists, but Frances is entirely endearing, at once silly and deep, hopeless and promising. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The conversations sparkle with both intended and unintended wit, and in a certain cockeyed light, Frances' blithe denial of reality is a charming affirmation of life. Read more

Mary Houlihan, Chicago Sun-Times: As Frances literally dances her way through the streets of New York, you can't help smiling and knowing she will be OK. She will figure out how to be the adult she was meant to be. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It's a tribute to Gerwig's performance, somehow both clumsy and elegant, that she wins us over despite ourselves, that we come to appreciate her aimlessness in a goal-oriented society ... Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Few films top Woody Allen's Manhattan for capturing New York City's blend of rapture and apprehension. Noah Baumbach's Frances Ha comes close. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: The understated final moments made me happier than any other filmgoing experience I've had all year. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: In your twenties you decide on the final version of you. Sophie is working on it; Frances is stuck in her crazy, clueless, can't-pay-the-rent stage. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: For all of Gerwig's energy, there's not much forward momentum here, apart from a series of transitional apartments. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A witty and emotionally resonant portrait of growing up, while retaining the exuberance of youth. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Village Voice: Here [Baumbach has] found the sweet spot between being personal and taking everything personally. Read more