Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007)
Directed by Joe Swanberg
Hannah is a recent college graduate interning at a Chicago production company. She is crushing on two writers at work, Matt and Paul, who share an office and keep her entertained. Will a relationship with one of them disrupt the delicate balance of their friendship?
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What critics compared Hannah Takes the Stairs to
Who else would get the sly joke of casting low-budget splatter director Ti West (The House of the Devil with Greta Gerwig) as Aimee's boyfriend, Tariq, and mumblecore captain Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs, also with Greta Gerwig) as an uncultured meathead who argues that TV commercials are the pinnacle of art?
Greta Gerwig has matured out of playing the adorable, quirky, self-absorbed with self-invention young women of “Hannah Takes the Stairs” and “Damsels in Distress.”
Gerwig, whose writing experience includes collaborations with Joe Swanberg (“Hannah Takes the Stairs”) and Noah Baumbach (“Mistress America,” “Frances Ha”), masterfully captures the pain, anger and love of the mother-daughter relationship.
It’s been ten years since Greta Gerwig’s debut as a screenwriter and co-director with the mumblecore feature Hannah Takes the Stairs .
From her writing and acting collaborations with low-budget auteur Joe Swanberg ( Hannah Takes the Stairs , 2007; and Nights and Weekends , 2008) through to more recent collaborations with her real life partner, Noah Baumberg ( Frances Ha , 2012; and Mistress America , 2015), Gerwig has grown in range and skill, often showing herself to be a brilliant slapstick comedian and far less clueless than she sometimes seems.
Yet Gerwig isn't really a new voice at all—in the past decade she's racked up ten screenwriting credits, including collaborations with Chicago indie Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs and Nights and Weekends) and New York indie Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha and Mistress America).
One of the earliest, and still among the best of the genre, was Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes the Stairs, with Gerwig in the titular role.
Her first film as an actor and co-writer, Joe Swanberg’s largely improvised “mumblecore” feature Hannah Takes the Stairs (2007), opens with Gerwig sitting with only a bath towel on her lap while a boyfriend and she laugh and pick lint from their skin.
This is not a new genre of film, having to some degree dominated "serious" American indie films in the last ten years or thereabouts (the prototypical film of the form, Funny Ha Ha , debuted in 2002 but wasn't widely seen until 2005), and Gerwig herself was first thrust to prominence as the title character in Hannah Takes the Stairs , directed by the artistically barren Joe Swanberg.
In mumblecore movies like Hannah Takes the Stairs and Baghead, and in mainstream comedies such as No Strings Attached and Arthur, Gerwig plays quirky and adorable, awkward and charming.
She softens Baumbach’s edges, yet carries over the insight that she debuted in 2007’s Hannah Takes the Stairs (which she wrote for Joe Swanberg).
For those already familiar with Gerwig (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Damsels in Distress, Arthur), enjoyment of Frances Ha is pre-determined.
If you never caught her early work for mumblecore wunderkind Joe Swanberg ("Hannah Takes the Stairs," "Nights and Weekends"), her scene-stealing role in Whit Stillman's "Damsels in Distress" or her first collaboration with Baumbach in "Greenberg," then "Frances Ha" will be a revelation.