she also doesn't exist to be contingent to some man, to help some dude find his inner freedom or creativity or something
i actually don't think she fulfills that archetype at all. she's a character you actually rarely see written for women: the loveable fuck-up.
― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Friday, 5 July 2013 16:37 (ten years ago) link
still thought these characters were impossibly juvenile for folks in their mid-late 20s
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Friday, 5 July 2013 16:43 (ten years ago) link
come to Brooklyn sometime!
― playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 July 2013 16:46 (ten years ago) link
Slocki otm.
― Treeship, Friday, 5 July 2013 17:09 (ten years ago) link
also, i don't really get the "impossible juvenile" criticism. like, would it be a better film if frances has a full time job she took seriously, paid all of her bills on time, and never ate gluten? would the world be a better place if all twentysomethings were like that?
― Treeship, Friday, 5 July 2013 18:23 (ten years ago) link
that depends
― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Friday, 5 July 2013 18:31 (ten years ago) link
great answer.
― Treeship, Friday, 5 July 2013 18:32 (ten years ago) link
Perhaps amateurist shouldn't have said they were impossibly juvenile for their mid-late twenties. Perhaps he ought to have said they were unbearably juvenile for their mid-late twenties.
― Aimless, Friday, 5 July 2013 18:37 (ten years ago) link
that's worse, almost. i thought they were fine. benjy et al were obviously privileged and i felt sort of jealous of them, but to be honest, it seems weird and corporate to insist that people who aren't hurting anyone be "more responsible" just for the sake of it. in an ideal society, everyone would have more time to loaf around, read books, and figure out how they feel about things, not less.
― Treeship, Friday, 5 July 2013 18:41 (ten years ago) link
there are better ways to define "more responsible" than you seem to have in mind
― Aimless, Friday, 5 July 2013 18:43 (ten years ago) link
that depends on whether any of the characters have a gluten intolerance or celiac disease.
― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Friday, 5 July 2013 18:45 (ten years ago) link
i guess i have love for my fellow millenials who don't know what they want from life yet, and might be harboring unrealistic dreams. life is confusing.
― Treeship, Friday, 5 July 2013 18:46 (ten years ago) link
also, fuck narrow definitions of "responsibilty"
― playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 6 July 2013 01:17 (ten years ago) link
Youuuuuuuuuuú
― Murder in the Rue McClanahan (jaymc), Saturday, 6 July 2013 06:10 (ten years ago) link
gluten is p bad for everyone at this point i think
― """""""""""""stalin""""""""""" (difficult listening hour), Saturday, 6 July 2013 06:15 (ten years ago) link
well I bought some gluten free granola and it kind of tasted like sawdust mixed with honey, but it wasn't too bad, tbh
― Murder in the Rue McClanahan (jaymc), Saturday, 6 July 2013 06:19 (ten years ago) link
As Seth Rogen said in This is the End gluten is what we call anything that's bad for us.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 6 July 2013 12:01 (ten years ago) link
nobody wants gluten! that's why they call it gluten!
― """""""""""""stalin""""""""""" (difficult listening hour), Saturday, 6 July 2013 12:33 (ten years ago) link
it's my impression that gluten will go the way of over the counter heroin within five years
― Treeship, Saturday, 6 July 2013 13:29 (ten years ago) link
i meant mostly that they talk like 10-year olds. i don't care if they have jobs or not.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:22 (ten years ago) link
"omg are we besties" and stuff like that. "tell me the story of us."
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:23 (ten years ago) link
meh, sillytalk during sex sounds bad outta context too
― playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:24 (ten years ago) link
but the whole movie was this
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:35 (ten years ago) link
that's how twentysomething women talk, in my experience. i thought the dialogue was convincing. people are goofy and unguarded around their close friends.
― Treeship, Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:39 (ten years ago) link
i appreciate your clarification concerning your use of the term "juvenile," though.
― Treeship, Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:42 (ten years ago) link
was amused to learn nebbishy "undateable" roomie plays Bugsy Siegel on Boardwalk Empire.
― playwright Greg Marlowe, secretly in love with Mary (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:44 (ten years ago) link
is boardwalk empire worth watching?
― Treeship, Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:47 (ten years ago) link
for about a season and a half.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 6 July 2013 17:49 (ten years ago) link
The banter btw Frances and the roommate = best part of the movie.
Which roommate?
― the evening dj there (Eric H.), Saturday, 6 July 2013 18:43 (ten years ago) link
benjy
― Treeship, Saturday, 6 July 2013 19:57 (ten years ago) link
I liked this more than I thought I would. It WAS strikingly like watching a long episode of Girls, but with emotional depth I find lacking in Lena Dunham. The friendship itself was a little bit unbelievable, but mostly because of the co-star, who I found unlikeable and somehow just didn't seem like the person who would be Gerwig's best friend. Whereas Gerwig made the attachment, and the loneliness, extremely believeable. The Paris trip was one of the saddest sequences I ever remember seeing in a film.
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 July 2013 03:56 (ten years ago) link
i really loved the part when she goes back to vassar to work at a summer camp and is self-conscious about how old she is compared to her co-workers. wrenching
― fervently nice (Treeship), Sunday, 28 July 2013 03:58 (ten years ago) link
Yeah that was great I thought. It kind of pushed the loserdom in directions that movies don't usually push it, but that felt real and believeable.
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:00 (ten years ago) link
I really thought she might kill herself at some points. Like if this wasn't an American film and wasn't a Baumbach film I might have thought it was going there.
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:01 (ten years ago) link
haha really? i thought she seemed really well-adjusted... like, her life can get hopeless by objective measures but it doesn't take much for her to start enjoying things because she is not a depressive personality.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:03 (ten years ago) link
Um, she was a depressive!
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:04 (ten years ago) link
Plus the film alluded to it at least twice -- the bathtub scene and the teetering on the edge of the water in Paris scene.
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:05 (ten years ago) link
Two things I thought were really amazing about the Paris sequence: (1) I don't remember ever seeing another film that, instead of romanticizing Paris, deliberately portrays it in a boring light (even at times making it look not much different from Brooklyn) and (2) she doesn't exchange words with anyone the entire time -- even the bookshop keeper merely wags her finger instead of speaking.
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:10 (ten years ago) link
i'd need to watch it again. to me it seemed like she was kind of a confused, aimless youth dealing with the fact that she wasn't "moving forward" in the way her peers were, and this caused desperation, but i didn't feel like she was ever teetering on the edge of the abyss or anything
― fervently nice (Treeship), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:13 (ten years ago) link
maybe she was never actually suicidal, but she certainly came off as depressed
― PJ. Turquoise dealer. Chatroulette addict. Andersonville. (Hurting 2), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:13 (ten years ago) link
what did you think of this movie compared to greenberg and the squid and the whale? because of the black and white and some other stylistic choices it felt less oppressively real than those filmes -- which i had in mind watching this -- and this might have been part of the reason i didn't think she seemed that unhappy. my brother vastly preferred this movie to the others but i'm not sure.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:24 (ten years ago) link
― fervently nice (Treeship), Saturday, July 27, 2013 10:58 PM (29 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah, i've been in her boat (and may be again) and this hit home. her constant need to "explain" why she was in her late 20s and working there.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:28 (ten years ago) link
jesus my internship last summer. the girl who sat next to me was in high school.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:28 (ten years ago) link
she did seem depressed, though given the slouchy, self-deflating personae that surrounded her, it wasn't easy to tell.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:29 (ten years ago) link
xpost
you just have to be kind of zen about it + don't even try to make friends.
i think i am too close to her experiences to be objective. i think in her circumstances, she held up well, and carried herself with wit and dignity even though she was self-deprecating sometimes.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:30 (ten years ago) link
like, she didn't let herself get too down on herself, to the point where she would really be stuck, in my view. and in the end she was doing ok.
― fervently nice (Treeship), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:32 (ten years ago) link
at the end she triumphs and people like her art--we learn she is actually talented, despite everything leading up to it seeming to imply otherwise. this is unrealistic since most people aren't talented.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:32 (ten years ago) link
or happy
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Sunday, 28 July 2013 04:33 (ten years ago) link