Recently I noticed that Hulu was featuring that hipster classic, Frances Ha. It's fun to watch it again now that it is no longer the newest thing. Surprisingly to me, it turned out not to be a dated retread of hipster Brooklyn in the 0-0s but a depiction of a period in our lives that many of us (not including engineering majors) went through in that period between college and our adult lives.
Many of us nostalgically remember that fun time when we went home from college without a job, any money, a significant other, or a practical career. This was the time when we were home all day, if not at an occasional stint as a Kelly girl. That period when we smoked dope while driving in the afternoon and having occasional sex on the back porch.
During this period, I drove to California and back, saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight, walked around Greenwich Village, and bought books and records. I still have my old Fugs records. At night I slept in my old room, the radio now playing Bob Fass instead of Cousin Brucie.
Of course, Greta Gerwig had a less certain residence than mine, depending on friend relationships to determine her lodging rather than sleeping in her old bedroom. She has fun strutting the streets, but I am uncertain of her balletic skills that she is banking on.
She does get to go to neat parties, she is in the city and not in Hackensack. She has nice conversations, but drinks too much and overindulges. She takes a trip to Paris she can't afford and is told not to rely on the bank of Mom and Dad.
Eventually I drove out west to find my fortune and became a member of the workaday, car driving, tax paying masses. This last step on the road to adulthood is harder for the young today. It's not enough to find one's identity anymore what with high rents and student debt and all.
