17 May 2013

Sangrigia, house specialty

Lola Versus

(2012)
Had to have this tonight 'cause I knew Frances Ha wasn't opening locally this weekend, and I needed a Greta Gerwig fix, ideally in a film whose title consists of her character's name followed by a non-sequitur, and whose title character is concerned about being old because she is a certain late-20s age, and she takes a pratfall, and she needs to learn to love herself before she can love anyone else.

The longer I watched, in fact, the more it seemed to me that, if what I've read about Frances is accurate, Gerwig and director/writing-and-life partner  intended their film as an edit of this one. Which is fine--this one, though it has some wonderfully written moments (such as the best extended Brando take by a woman since Diane Keaton's in Sleeper), depends a little too much on the perfectly reasonable expectation that spending 85 minutes with Gerwig is enough entertainment for most of us. And if it's significantly better than this--which all the buzz suggests is the case--then it's pretty damned good.

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