Noah Baumbach's wonderful Frances Ha is something of a tribute to failed ambitions and our ability to push on regardless of the setbacks, shot in freewheeling black and white photography which makes it feel a little like a cross between the films of John Cassavettes and Woody Allen. Co-writer and star Greta Gerwig plays the eponymous wannabe dancer, gliding around New York in search of something - indeed, anything - which might help her fulfil her dreams, even as her doubts and insecurities get in the way. She chats to friends, takes dancing lessons and waits tables, and thanks to Gerwig's effortless charisma entralls the audience from start to finish. It's hard not to spot the parallels with Woody Allen's movies such as Manhattan and Annie Hall, and Baumbach has steadily been securing his position as the pre-eminent director of neurotic New Yorkers desperately and amusingly trying to discover their true identities.
