Bret Dorman’s review published on Letterboxd:
Worth Watching? Yes!
Story: Frances bounces around New York City while trying to maintain friendships, jobs, and her artistic integrity.
One Good Thing:
'Not doing it'
Frances Ha aims to highlight the small moments in life with your typical indie quirky comedy lens. A lot of people will probably be put off by Frances' aloofness and child like wonder of the adult world as she desperately tries to fit in. Among the blabbery conversations, there are moments of truth spoken, at least to me. Frances and I are both 27, becoming distanced from old friends, move around a lot with no set plan for the future, and have a certain passion for the arts.
So when Frances is trying to make small talk with a friends family, she mostly manages to come off as awkward. At one point she tries to be polite and asks "So what do you do?" When the person politely asks back she deflects the answer as being hard to explain. She's question again, "Because it's complicated?" Her reply isn't thought out but she manages to strain out:
"Because I don't really do it...?"
Sharing a lot in common with the main character, this little 6 word response to a very easy question speaks volumes about a kid pretending to be an adult. Its hard to ever mention anything about film making, film reviewing, or improv/comedy in general because it's not something I "do" but it's still something I "do." I identify with these things more than my jobs which have ranged form cashier to phlebotomist to roller coaster operator to photographer. However bringing up any thing creative automatically demands more than a typical one title response like "lawyer."
In Frances' day dream like life, she constantly struggles to maintain honesty to herself and grow as a person. She knows what normal interactions look like and tries her best to fit in, but her weird conversation pieces blurt out of her like uncontrollable hiccups. Frances is a fun loving character, but by the end, by not really doing what she does, she manages to stumble into true happiness.