Frances Ha
IFC Films | Release Date: May 17, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
82
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The TelegraphTim RobeyAug 3, 2013
If films were gestures, this one would be a perfectly timed shrug, with the smile to match. Read full review
100
Washington PostAnn HornadayMay 24, 2013
The writing is so musical, so attuned to human frailty and aspiration, that I defy anyone to watch the movie without smiling — with amusement one minute, rueful recognition the next, but probably always with some measure of simple, undiluted delight. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMay 16, 2013
Effortless and effervescent, Frances Ha is a small miracle of a movie, honest and funny with an aim that's true. Read full review
100
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 16, 2013
With its swift, jaunty rhythms and sharp, off-kilter jokes, Frances Ha is frequently delightful. Ms. Gerwig and Mr. Baumbach are nonetheless defiant partisans in the revolt against the tyranny of likability in popular culture. Read full review
91
The A.V. ClubBen KenigsbergMay 15, 2013
Above all, Frances Ha is a wry and moving portrait of friendship, highlighting the way that two people who know everything about each other can nevertheless grow apart as their needs change. Read full review
91
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 19, 2013
At times, Frances Ha strains from emphasizing the characters' snarkiness and disregarding plot. By routinely going nowhere, however, the movie eventually finds a distinctive voice that carries it through. Read full review
90
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMay 23, 2013
There is no particularly cathartic climax to Frances Ha. Instead there is a more realistic depiction of Frances’ growth. Like Gerwig’s performance, it’s natural, it’s realistic, perfectly believable. Read full review
90
Film.comJordan HoffmanMay 19, 2013
The film is so engaging because it's so damn funny. Read full review
90
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonMay 16, 2013
Frances Ha also marks the rare instance in which an actress has the perfect role at the perfect time. Ms. Gerwig's work here is fragile, delicate, subject to bruising; something that could wither under too much attention. Perhaps Ms. Gerwig is the greatest actress alive. And maybe Frances Ha is just the ghost orchid of independent cinema. Read full review
90
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekMay 14, 2013
Frances Ha is a patchwork of details that constitute a sort of dating manual—not one that tells you how to meet hot guys, but one that fortifies you against all the crap you have to deal with as a young person in love with a city that doesn't always love you back. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 19, 2013
The director mixes moods with a playfulness that is both brazen and carefree and yet precisely modulated, yielding results that amplify the specific content of the screenplay. This makes for a film that, however cheap it was to make, is incredibly rich to watch. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJun 5, 2013
Funny and touching, Frances Ha may very well be the most eloquent take yet on a generation in flux – a cinematic talk-back to so many Atlantic articles, minus the scolding and the statistics, and uncharacteristically (for Baumbach) uncynical. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesMary HoulihanMay 30, 2013
Filled with witty dialogue and natural performances, Frances Ha marks a return to form for Baumbach. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMay 23, 2013
You may watch Frances Ha relating to little of it, or a lot of it, but this "road movie with apartments," as the director (shooting here in velvety black-and-white, recalling Woody Allen's "Manhattan" in its texture) so aptly put it, is informed by a buoyant, resilient spirit. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversMay 16, 2013
Baumbach, in his most compassionate film since The Squid and the Whale, catches Frances in the act of inventing herself. It's a glorious sight to see. Read full review
85
NPRElla TaylorMay 16, 2013
Running through the streets of New York for the sheer hell of it, Frances has the gift of joy to her very marrow. As for Greta Gerwig, I get the feeling she's just gearing up. Read full review
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallMay 29, 2013
Baumbach keeps everything dialed down to medium cool, with occasional flashes of exuberance like Frances dancing down a street to the beat of David Bowie's Modern Love. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyMay 15, 2013
Gerwig, who previously starred in Baumbach's "Greenberg," is charmingly awkward. And Sumner (Sting's daughter) is an ace with deadpan one-liners. Read full review
83
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezFeb 19, 2013
Loose, limber and driven by a fierce energy and staccato/pause rhythm we haven't seen previously from this filmmaker, Noah Baumbach's sublime Frances Ha is a fresh and vivacious near-reinvention of the director/writer's comedic milieu. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid HughesJul 22, 2013
Although the monochrome photography will invite comparisons with Manhattan, Frances Ha is closer in spirit to Godard than Woody Allen. Anchored by a charming performance from Greta Gerwig, it’s as light and breezy as a walk in Central Park, and just as refreshing. Read full review
80
Total FilmNeil SmithJul 19, 2013
Charming, poignant and often very funny, Baumbach and Gerwig’s latest collaboration is a joyous portrait of an unformed personality that should strike chords of recognition in all who watch it. Read full review
80
The GuardianCatherine ShoardFeb 19, 2013
Gerwig's performance is full of depth and nuance; self-conscious without being mawkish, clever behind the kook. Read full review
80
VarietyFeb 19, 2013
Baumbach pushes beyond sincerity in search of truth, drawing from such stylistic forebears as the French New Wave, Woody Allen and Andy Warhol's Factory films to capture a reality that has eluded him on his more polished dramedies. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 23, 2013
Gerwig makes us want to believe that in a city where anything is possible, Francis Ha has the last laugh. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanMay 23, 2013
It's visually appealing, but embodies the movie's (and Frances') problem: wanting to be taken seriously without putting in the real work required to prove you're actually serious. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezMay 23, 2013
Playful, effervescent comedy. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerMay 17, 2013
It’s a skimpy, overextended riff, but some of the seemingly tossed-off moments are lovely. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithMay 16, 2013
Baumbach seems mainly interested in capturing the whimsical rhythms of unformed post-college life, with money too scarce and roommates too ample — but he already did that, did it better and with more rueful feeling, in the much funnier “Kicking and Screaming,” the debut he made at 25 and one of the best films of the 1990s. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJohn SemleyMay 12, 2013
Noah Baumbach's film feels like too perfect a portrait of quarter-life malady, down to the rushed redemptive endnotes and Greta Gerwig's idealized heroine. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreMay 9, 2013
Frances Ha turns melancholy and almost painful to watch in its last act as she and we see the dead end dead ahead. And the film doesn’t seem to earn the finale the two of them cooked up for us. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireJun 11, 2013
[Baumbach's] collaboration with Gerwig has a freshness that may or not owe something to first-blush romance but that renders this bittersweet comedy occasionally inspired, frequently charming and always watchable. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfMay 14, 2013
Daringly plotless and disconnected (“just like my life!” squeals the target audience), Noah Baumbach’s latest, a breeze, feels a lot less self-absorbed than usual, mainly for not having a neurotic at its core. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMay 13, 2013
Frances Ha is an irritant when it lingers. When Baumbach’s touch is more glancing — when he cuts before the humiliation — it sings. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensMay 19, 2013
Frances Ha feels like a collaboration between two people in love, and not always in the best way. There are too many scenes in a row that make the same point. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierMay 16, 2013
Aiming for lightness but landing with a thud, Frances Ha is a well-meaning blunder. Director Noah Baumbach’s ode to Brooklyn twentysomething life is a flibbertigibbet fable that, like a self-absorbed flirt you meet at a party, grates on the nerves despite being easy on the eyes. Read full review
More From This Movie

82 Critic Reviews

7.8 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL