There are movies out there that just speak to you. It’s like they pull up a chair beside you and huskily whispering into your ear, “Hey little mama, don’t you want to be spiritually affected tonight?”

Yep. There are films that just speak to you, slowly seducing you with their characters, story, and heart. For me, as a young becoming film journalist, Frances Ha was a movie that captured me, spinning me around with this sense of resonance and empathy. I saw myself in Frances Ha, I feel in love with Greta Gerwig and Baumbach, and I have rabbited on about this movie ever since as it circles my soul and mind.

Now Gerwig is on the cusp of history with her Academy Award nominated Lady Bird, we’re celebrating Frances Ha again.

Directed by Noah Baumbach, and staring Gerwig, who also writes,  Frances Ha is about the titular character who, ia twenty-something haze, is struggling through the ups and downs of life like a pre-mid-life crisis. Living in New York with her best friend, Sophie, Frances is content with her simple and close life, even after a break up However, when Sophie announces that she is leaving to move in with another friend, Frances world is turned upside down. Causing her to reassess her life, Frances realises that she hasn’t much and doesn’t do much. The modern dancer soon flits through the city and a series of moments, ever optimistic at what little she has on the place just hoping to reap the rewards of her positivisty.

This is a stylish yet affectionate piece. Frances Ha is a beautiful and warming movie that feels for its characters. Set idealistically on the outskirts of New York life and culture, Frances Ha could really fall into cliché hipster characters that a more caricatures. Put thanks to a refreshing partnership between writer Gerwig and director Baumbach, Frances Ha is  delightful. Our leading lady Frances is a “glass half full” girl despite the fact most of her glasses are empty. As she struggles to keep her head a float and connected to the city, as well as earning money, Frances is a wonderfully unique spirit who is constantly on the edge. Her determination is much her detriment; the more she tries to connect is the more it slips out of her fingers.

With not much going for her, it could be very easy to slip in a romance to “give her meaning”. But even with her non sexual relationship with the similarly impoverished Levi and Benji, it is Frances alone that has to earn the validation of her self. The best relationship Frances has is with Sophie and the only time Frances is wounded is when that friendship is in trouble. It is a stunningly realistic portrayal of a woman getting her life together and on track despite society’s views against her.

Frances Ha has some bittersweet moments; a solo trip to Paris is particularly vexing as it mirrors just how lonely Frances’ life has become. But this movie is never bogged down by overplayed emotions. Some may find this movie tiresome but it is definitely refreshing. Baumbach keeps the narrative as troubled yet breezy as Frances. And she is a character that most can relate to. Immature yet trying, Frances Ha is a warming portrayal of those on the outskirts of their life attempting to reach stability. Poignant and endearing, Frances Ha is a brilliantly written, acted and directed indie flick

Frances Ha is available on BFI Player 

Is there a kind of TV show more comfortable than a sitcom? Some people relish reality TV because they know it’s terrible, and some never feel more at home than when they’ve got their teeth sunk into a crime-of-the-week detective show. But sitcoms transcend them all; a compact package of laughs that you can fall into no matter what time of day, no matter what episode of what season, and no matter how many times you’ve seen it before. We’ve all seen every episode of Friends a million times. We all have our favourites, and I thought I’d seen it all, until I made the impromptu decision to start watching Seinfeld.

Seinfeld is the iconic adventures of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, playing a fictionalised version of himself alongside his bizarre group of friends; ex-girlfriend Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), eccentric next door neighbour Kramer (Michael Richards) and hilariously pathetic best pal George (Jason Alexander). Four terrible people, making their way through life in New York, and something I truly couldn’t believe.

To maybe oversimplify the show a little, it’s humour consists of almost entirely observational pieces on people, life, love, all sorts of topics. In other words, it’s very easy to see that it’s written by a comedian. But it’s well known that Seinfeld is a show about ‘nothing’…It took me longer than I should have to pick up on this. Over the course of the show’s nine seasons, it very rarely contains any kind of important narrative, and almost entirely does away with the concept of consequences. It wasn’t until the fourth’s season when the show starts getting a bit meta – Not something that lasts – that it truly hit me, and I was blown away. Where shows like Friends and How I Met Your Mother base it’s comedy and emotion on the ever developing relationships of it’s main cast and consistently come back to it for the progress of the show, Seinfeld takes pride in being exceedingly detached, and seriously makes it work.

And yet, for a show so detached and so uncaring, how can it mean so much to so many people? This was question that hit me in the face when I found myself close to tears at it’s unsurprisingly non-event of a finale – Saying that, it wasn’t quite as uneventful as many claim – and I realised, it was because there just isn’t anything like it. It feels so unique, yet it’s set up and execution seems so simple. It’s a strange feeling to be so entranced with four objectively awful people, another trait that this show takes pride in, and for every episode to move on from disaster to disaster simply because these characters refuse to learn their lesson and grow up, a strict rule in the writing of the show. Like most sitcoms, it takes a little while to find it’s feet, but once it gets there it’s unstoppable. It lead to some of the best supporting characters and quotable lines that TV had to offer. The four leads are perfect; Jerry is charming, but is ultimately not that dissimilar to his real life persona. It’s the effort of his co-stars that really shine, in particular that of Michael Richards’ almost entirely physical performance and Jason Alexander’s constant anger, depression, desperation, over the top, and just about anything else that George requires.

For a show about nothing, it truly is something; Seinfeld is one of the best TV shows of all time. To quote the Green Day song used in it’s final season, “It’s something unpredictable, but in the end is right”. It’s one of the most consistently funny and undeniably impressive shows around, and it may take you several weekends to get through. Trust me, it’s completely worth it.

Seinfeld is available on Netflix!