Frances Ha with Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, and Mickey Sumner

27-year-old aspiring dancer Frances (Gerwig) is career-less, romance-less, and directionless – but somehow manages to maintain a sunny optimism in Baumbach’s endearingly loose-limbed new comedy. Shot in silver-toned black and white, it’s a Woody Allen-esque ode to New York City, a Georges Delerue-sampling homage to the French New Wave, and, above all, a showcase for what is “unquestionably Gerwig’s defining performance to date” (The Hollywood Reporter).