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August 12, 2021,
Patience is a virtue when you watch a slew of Indie films.
That’s why this review is a long one.
In the early years, say almost 20 years ago, when Independent Films were often made because they developed a strong message that, in terms of the subject matter, major film studios were afraid of and, even more in fear that they wouldn’t get their money back, those unique films delivered the goods more than not.
Soon, due to their rise in popularity, we began to see a new movement towards quirky, artsy, fartsy films that tried too hard to be funny and weren’t.
We didn’t give up on them, we just had to look a little harder for the gems.
So when you flip the switch and the movie begins, just because it is not typical of a well-written Hollywood drama, it is important to be patient.
PERSONAL BELONGINGS
Personal Belongings was a 2007 Cuban film that took a while to build but when it did begin to get to the point, we felt that it was a point that needed to be made.
The story evolves as young Doctor Ana who lives alone because she couldn’t bear to leave Cuba when her family sailed away on a raft to America.
Ernesto lives in his car with his belongings in a small case, traveling from embassy to embassy trying to fulfill his dream of leaving Cuba. These Star-crossed lovers long to be together but are pulled apart by different dreams rooted in different countries.
It was very moving in parts. Do you stay with your love, which in this life may be so hard to find again, or do you move away to a land of endless dreams while the window is still open?
It was worth the wait.
WORLDS APART
Worlds Apart is a 2008 Danish drama directed by Niels Arden Oplev and written by Oplev and Steen Bille. The film stars Rosalinde Mynster and Pilou Asbæk. Based upon a true story, the film is about a 17-year-old religious girl who struggles to reconcile her faith and her secret romance with a non-believing boy. Worlds Apart played at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival and was submitted by Denmark for the 2009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The storyline goes, Sara is a teenager who lives with her family, who are deeply religious.
The family’s devout image is questioned when the parent’s divorce as a consequence of the father’s infidelity.
One night at a party Sara meets Teis, an older boy who takes an interest in her. Teis is not of her faith and their relationship is rejected by her father, but Sara falls in love and begins to doubt her own belief systems. Facing permanent ostracism from her family, Sara must make the toughest choice of her young life.
Some in our circle were deeply involved in organized religion for over 20 years.
We’ve mentioned that from time to time.
Typically we avoid reviews that involve organized religion for several reasons.
The first, even after all of those years, we don’t know who the entity is that created all of this but our experience has taught us that he is very real and it is not wise to speak disgracefully of religions, even if you feel it is based upon facts or your own personal experience.
Why bring bad things into your life when you don’t have to?
Generally speaking, we never watch movies that involve any forms of the evil spirit world.
Second, there is no freedom of speech so if you speak ill about the particular organized religion that you are from, similar to a cult, you could face reprisals from them.
There is no one to protect you. There is no cavalry coming.
For those two reasons alone, we tend to stay far away from them.
Finally and most important, in our opinion, most films regarding organized religion are just not well done. They either are trying to convert you with simplistic flowery stories based upon one principle or the producers are determined to reveal organized religion’s complete and utter hypocrisy.
And their failure to deliver upon impossible promises.
There is a caution there.
In our experience, there are individuals and families who did very well in that religious world and in many ways, were far better off spiritually, emotionally and financially than if they weren’t there.
Having laid that foundation, we now look back on the film Worlds Apart.
This film was so carefully thought out and researched that no matter what religion you were in, you could absolutely relate.
The operative word is “were”.
If you are still there, an argument could be made that you are still being brain washed and can’t see the forest for the trees. You most likely will not be objective or open.
For us, now that we have left, the film convinced us we were very wise to silently part ways from our particular organized religion and never, ever come back.
Twenty years is a long time, though not completely wasted.
The training that we received there was invaluable. Better than any other that we received, including our college degree. Twenty years later, how many details do you remember from your college courses? Can you remember even 25 percent of your professor’s names?
We certainly can’t.
So much of what we learned in organized religion, we remember like yesterday.
We can feel young Sarah’s pain, emotional struggle and dilemma. The film does not preach or condemn, just presents.
It does deliver a powerful point, even if painfully so.
Which now brings us to the story of our discussion today.
FRANCES HA
Frances Ha is a 2012 American black and white comedy-drama film, directed by Noah Baumbach and written by Mr. Baumbach and Greta Gerwig.
Ms. Gerwig also plays the title role.
The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on September 1, 2012, and began a limited release on May 17, 2013. It was released by IFC Films.
Based upon the story line presented in numerous media places, it gave us the idea that we were going to view another poorly done Indie film where the characters are massively quirky, try to be funny and aren’t.
Initially our suspicions appeared to be spot on. Especially when she initiates play fights with her friends, runs down the street and falls and also skips down the street too.
Frances Ha? No ha, ha.
Frances Ha is a story that follows a New York woman, who doesn’t really have an apartment. She apprentices for a dance company although she’s not really a dancer, and throws herself headlong into her dreams which appear to be jumbled and not realistic.
Netflix also explains, “Determined to make it as a modern dancer in New York, a young woman pursues her unlikely goal with more enthusiasm than natural talent.”
Things do not appear to bode well for Frances.
First off, when we initially meet her, she is living with her mousey looking roommate who could be a librarian, a vegan, environmental protagonist, animal rights activist or involved in something else really intelligent, honorable, selfless and annoying.
Well we were close.
She is an editor.
Of the two, since Frances is statuesque, blonde and outgoing, you would think between the girls, Frances would have the brighter future.
She doesn’t.
Early on, Frances has an opportunity to share an apartment with her boyfriend who is contemplating purchasing not one but two hairless cats.
Hmm, in all of our years we have never met a male with a hairless cat. Let alone two.
Nothing wrong with that but…
So when she balks at moving in with him out of loyalty to Sophie, her super intelligent roommate, we think purrrrfect decision.
They break up. His choice. He’s not mad but…
So Frances, who sleeps in Sophie’s bed, which is Sophie’s choice (minus Kevin Kline), who keeps asking Frances to take her socks off, but not her clothes, is glad to be back with her low key and extremely bright girlfriend and roommate.
Who turns out not to be loyal to her.
Sophie will be moving in with a guy named Patch. Probably his father admired Robin Williams (come on, Patch Adams).
Now loyal Frances finds out the hard way that the most important person to be loyal to in this life, sometimes filled with very selfish people, is to whom?
Out on her bum, Frances now begins to bounce from couch to couch until she gets a steady gig.
One as a dancer. Which is a very hard gig to get. Why not work at Starbucks until you do? We hear they pay for your medical and in some cases college tuition as well.
Maybe Frances didn’t read the same online magazines as Sophie.
The first couch Frances lands on is with Lev, played masterfully by Adam Driver who seems to be playing the same exact guy he played in the HBO TV series, Girls.
In fact, we wondered if he just changed apartments.
Like in Girls, he sleeps with a different dumpy chick virtually every night who he will never call back again. He thrives on getting inside of the heads of dumpy chicks and young women in positions of weakness with low self-esteem. He’s not dangerous, just a taker spelled with a T in caps.
Frances is perfect for his mild abuse though curiously she spurns his request for a common bedtime story.
We then begin to see Frances life slowly unravel.
In reality, except in her head, she actually is not up for any dancing jobs and she is running out of money. Sophie’s life is zooming skyward as Patch receives an exceptional career opportunity in Japan. When Frances nudges her way onto another friend’s couch who reminds her that she is staying for five months and not six, Frances makes a complete fool of herself at a group dinner that night with her foot in mouth conversations that you begin to wonder if she is on the verge of a break down.
Due to being shot in black and white with a New York location, we couldn’t help but think about you know who. Yes, Woody Allen.
We would rate some of Woody’s best comedies like Annie Hall, Manhattan, and Hannah and Her Sisters with an A.
So with Frances Ha, with a snicker, we first rated it as a G level Woody Allen movie.
Then a C.
Then a B.
Why? Something a little deeper seems to be going on here. And since we’ve easily seen over 1,000 films and privately reviewed them, the key to a film’s quality is how it makes you feel.
When it has no real purpose, except to get the director or producer some notoriety, we don’t feel anything.
Filming the movie in black and white, similar to Woody Allen tactics works very well here. Frances world is slowly becoming void of color. It is becoming constricted.
It is moving from gray to dark.
Here, eerily we are feeling something that is approaching deeply sad and lonely.
But why?
It is when Frances travels back to Sacramento, California to visit her family, things start to get more clear and confusing at the same time.
We live in Northern California and have spent a lot of time in Sacramento. The movie team did indeed travel to Sacramento. We recognize the tower, bridges and streets.
Sacramento, by California standards, seems to have very solid and comfortable families. It is a State of California employment town. Jobs are stable and generally life is good. The San Francisco Bay Area migration due to sky high real estate has kept the Sacramento real estate market on the rise. Private industries can come and go that would destroy towns in the Mid-West but here you would barely feel it.
Frances family appears to be the perfect Sacramento family. They are doing well financially, they break bread with their extended family and they go to church.
Most important they seem sincerely welcoming to Frances who, as parents, they privately have to be concerned about but mercifully and wisely don’t engage in the standard B movie stuff where daddy eats artery clogging foods with a beer in his hand and blows off steam at her because her siblings are incredibly successful and she is not and he really wanted another son (yawn).
The parents know the score but decided not to post it.
When departing, as Frances is waving goodbye from the ascending escalator at the authentic Sacramento Airport, it is as though the stable life she once had with her parents flashes before her eyes one last time before she reaches New York where her life will once again descend into chaos.
The question we have is what in the world happened to Frances?
In another life she would be a gorgeous blonde starlet on the rise working at Goldman Sachs, dining with all of the right people, married to a successful high end attorney who is fortunate to have her before she makes her next million and branches out on her own with a fashion subscription box service that soon will be featured in Forbes Magazine.
And Femcompetitor Magazine (smile).
Something is not right here and we are wondering if we are going to ever find out what derailed her?
It appears that now at 27 and sliding, she has no real direction.
There are options a plenty, she just doesn’t appear to see them.
Is she really divorced from the guy on the street that she bumps into, who describes her as having a man walk and is standing with his new girlfriend? If so, that is a clue.
In situations like this, if you are a man with a stable job who makes a good living, the temptation would be to come into Frances life and save her. The knight in a shining expensive Brooks Brothers suit.
The Pretty Woman syndrome without the hooker boots.
You get the sense however that even if he does come along that he will not be able to save her. That rarely works especially when someone is 27. The only thing that will happen is that she will begin to drag him down with her.
This is not a college girl.
For those of us who have been in that situation where our expected life has completely fallen apart and now we are in a descending free fall, some way, somehow we need to right the ship before it is too late.
Someone else cannot save us. Even if they get us a job. That helps but it is absolutely not the solution.
Something is broken inside of us and we need to look within and find out what it is and begin to slowly repair it.
Frances needs to do the same thing, but will she? Can she?
We look into her future with great trepidation. She is not paying into Social Security, she has no pension, very little savings and no solid employment prospects.
It is one thing to bounce around on couches in your twenties with the potential lure to young men of carnal exploration but not as you age.
Who will she be at forty?
What if a catastrophic illness comes along?
Francis could end up on the streets one day. Please tell us we’re wrong.
At 27, she still has time, so we might be wrong, but she better get started soon.
Or at some point she’ll have to move back at home with mom and dad and admit to complete and utter failure.
As the film moves towards a conclusion, things do get better for Frances but it still appears that she doesn’t have a plan. In her mind her happiness is derived through the control of others.
Like her friend Sophie.
Who she might see as a potential love interest?
Hard to tell.
Whatever she feels for Sophie, we don’t sense that Sophie feels the same about her, especially in the long-term. For Sophie, it is about relationship convenience until someone better comes along.
She’s ready to dump Patch.
And by the way, Frances truly is not a good dancer. Maybe she should think about a different career. One that pays at least twice a month with medical.
Ultimately Frances should do what most of us eventually learn the hard way.
You have to be your own advocate for your future. In Frances case, a career that will pay her well and center her life where she primarily drives and controls her fate.
While not perfect, then she will live a life not constrained in black and white but potentially filled with vibrant colors painted on a life canvass driven by her.
~ ~ ~
OPENING PHOTO Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com, fcielitecompetitor.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com Debby-Wong-Shutterstock.com-photo-credit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exploding_Girl
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0814258/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worlds_Apart_(2008_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Ha
https://www.netflix.com/title/70257412
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
