How to Be Single Offers Rom-Com Deconstruction Rather than an Instructional Manual

How to Be Single is a film about four women – Dakota Johnson, Rebel Wilson, Leslie Mann and Alison Brie – searching for meaning in New York inside and outside of romantic relationships. The film is similarly in search of an identity, swerving from low-key indie dramedy to broad romantic comedy from scene-to-scene with reckless…

Baumbach’s Back, Alright: Mistress America Finds Wit and Insight in Screwball Pastiche

Mistress America is Noah Baumbach’s second feature for 2015, and by far the strongest. His first effort, While We’re Young, parlayed an unconvincing generational-gap comedy into a weirdly-shoehorned meditation on authenticity in documentaries; Mistress America, thankfully, proves to be both a funnier comedy and a more insightful analysis of the blurred line between artificiality and…

Young Sophie Bell (2015)

Amanda Adolfsson’s Young Sophie Bell is an intimate insight into female friendship; passionate and personal, combative and competitive all at once. Sophie (Felice Jankell) – whose surname is actually Karlsson – has been best friends with Alice (Hedda Stiernstedt) since infancy. They shine together, as exemplified by the opening scene, where their vibrant pink and…

Sydney Film Festival: Nasty Baby (2015)

At first glance, Sebastián Silva’s Nasty Baby appears to slot neatly into the Noah Baumbach/Lena Dunham school of New York indie. You know the type. Loose, naturalistic dramas about trendy people in a trendy city, leavened with a hint of comedy before drifting towards Serious Issues that aren’t taken all that seriously. For most of…

Frances Ha (2013)

Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha is a curious blend of universality and specificity. It tells the tale of young Frances Halliday (Greta Gerwig), an aspiring dancer, as she bounces from apartment to apartment in New York City. We follow her successes and her failures, and watch her orbit through and around various friendship groups, moving away…