A new series by Christopher James
Noah Baumbach at a screening of Frances Ha
Do one for them; do one for you. If you can still do projects for yourself, you can keep your soul.
— Martin Scorsese: A Journey
Many creatives have pointedly or inadvertently taken Martin Scorsese’s career advice. One has to hit it big in order to have clout in Hollywood. Often, it takes clout to make passion projects. In this column, we want to look at the times wherein a filmmaker or actor’s career triumphs have come at a time where they’ve also had to make compromises. In some cases, people have taken the easy cash grab in order to sustain more creative endeavors. Other times, the populist “one for them” ends up being a creative triumph, loosening the talent up.
The first entry in this series belongs to Noah Baumbach, for his wonderfully chaotic 2012. In the same year he begins his partnership behind the camera with Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha (released in 2013), he secretly writes Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. Do these movies share any DNA, or is it a textbook case of “one for them (I need money), one for me (I’m an artist)”?
Frances (Greta Gerwig) has a terrible time in Paris, but at least she gets to watch Puss in Boots. Would she have watched Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted if it were playing?
Frances Ha may be one of Noah Baumbach’s most well-known films, but the authorship isn't singularly his vision the way The Squid and the Whale or The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) are. It felt, even at the time, like the grand announcement of Greta Gerwig, who would go on to become the fifth woman nominated for directing for Lady Bird. Gerwig co-wrote Frances Ha and starred in the titular role, a 27-year-old struggling to be an adult. Yes, their artistic collaboration was also a romantic collaboration behind the scenes. Still, you get the sense watching Frances Ha that Baumbach is introducing the world to Gerwig’s voice and building her up to be the tour de force director she became.
It’s extremely human to compare yourself to friends around you. The bond that Frances and Sophie (Mickey Sumner) have is universal in its specificities. An opening montage shows them play-fighting, hanging out on roof decks, peeing on subways and just ultimately engaging in good-old-fashioned mischief. There’s a romanticization of their friendship and roommate bond. In these isolated moments, Frances and Sophie are equals. Yet, when they step out of their bubble, Frances starts to see Sophie in a different stratosphere than her. Sophie has a stable, high paying job while Frances struggles to keep her dance career afloat. Sophie’s relationship with Patch (Patrick Heusinger) grows more serious at the same point that Frances breaks up with her boyfriend. Eventually, the two have to split up as Sophie moves in with Patch and Frances looks for an affordable housing option. So begins Frances journey to self-acceptance and struggle towards adulthood.
Frances’ cries for help are as numerous as her addresses. There are ill-advised flirtations, drunken confrontations, dinner party faux pas and more. Most extreme is her trip to Paris, where a sleeping pill incident causes her to miss the entire thing. Her actions fit well with the rest of Baumbach’s protagonists - flawed people who dig themselves in bigger and bigger holes partially due to their own hubris. Yet, Gerwig’s characterization of Frances makes her lighter than the acid-tongued Margot (Margot at the Wedding) or aggressively defensive Walt Berkman (The Squid and the Whale). She doesn’t want people to think she’s the smartest person in the room, she just wants to belong in the room. Often, she uses her sunny disposition to ignore reality. A jaunty rush to the ATM to cash her surplus money is a particular highlight. She may be living on financial fumes, but she can experience childlike joy for the small drops of money that unexpectedly show up. In short, Frances is something that almost none of Baumbach’s other characters are - a delight.
In the end, Frances Ha is about finding love, though that might not be with a romantic partner. Love comes from seeing someone for who they truly are and having them see you just as authentically. Frances postures throughout the entire movie, trying to make people feel like she is not struggling. It’s only when she takes a step back and assesses her next step that she is able to move forward and have an artistic triumph. Sophie does the same thing with her obnoxiously cheery blog about life in Japan. She wants the world to think she has it all to distract from how alone and out-of-place she feels. Only once the two women are back sharing a college dorm do they realize that they are each other’s true love. They both see each other for who they are and who they can become.
According to Daze, Baumbach “wrote Madagascar 3 and nearly directed Mr. Popper’s Penguins around 2011.” Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh divorced officially in 2013, though they were separated in 2010. One could easily look at Marriage Story (2019), later, and connect the dots with Noah Baumbach’s own divorce story. In that film, Adam Driver’s Charlie (a Baumbach stand-in) says “Well, I’m going broke, too, if that’s any help. I’ve just agreed to direct two shitty plays and we can forget putting anything away for Henry’s college.” One can put two and two together and deduce that Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted was that “shitty play” in a sense. So is it just a “shitty play” or does the movie bear some Baumbach trademarks?
The Madagascar animals (and Noah Baumbach) join the circus!
I’m not being condescending when I say that Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is the best film in the series. Yes, this is a film made strictly for kids, not an adult fable a la Fantastic Mr. Fox, which Noah Baumbach co-wrote with Wes Anderson. The Madagascar franchise in particular is known for its ADD fast pace, and that is no different in this third outing. Still, the juvenile mania has an infectious zaniness that makes it a surprisingly entertaining and pleasant watch for adults. Monkeys dress as a gender bending Marie Antoinette. Frances McDormand voices an otherworldly villainous animal control agent named Captain Chantal DuBois. Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston and Martin Short do Kidman-level 'wonky European accent' work as a trio of circus animals. Monkeys fly a fighter plane equipped with banana guns. Relax and enjoy the mayhem.
There’s a plot between the frantic set-pieces. The Madagascar crew which includes narcissistic lion Alex (Ben Stiller, making Alex a true Baumbach sad sack protagonist), excitable zebra Marty (Chris Rock), fierce hippo Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) and hypochondriac giraffe Melman (David Schwimmer) travels to Monte Carlo in order to find the Penguins and hitch a ride on their plane to New York. After a gambling incident gone awry, the whole gaggle of animals are stranded in Monte Carlo with a murderous animal control agent (Frances McDormand) after them. In order to stay hidden and on the move, they pretend to be circus animals and hop on a train with a ragtag traveling animal circus.
The film is full of mainstream sell-out moments. An extended routine is set to Katy Perry’s “Fireworks” and many jokes are made about various character’s butt sizes. The finale features a psychotic mash up of “I Like to Move It Move It” and the repeated chanting of “Circus! Afro! Circus! Afro! Polka Dot, Polka Dot, Polka Dot, Afro!” Still, there are some inspired moments amdist the chaos. The romance between King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Sonya, a bear in a pink tutu that rides a tricycle, is fundamentally queer. God bless Baumbach if he wrote the line “Come on my hairy queen, let’s do donuts in the Pantheon.”
All in all, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted is undeniably a cash grab. Though no one would mistake it for "a Noah Baumbach film", it is fun and imaginative enough to be a standout for the series. Just because a film is aimed at hyperactive kids doesn’t mean it can’t be fun for adults, too. In fact, Baumbach weirdly crafts two films in quick succession which are about New York City and Europe. Frances Ha is a love letter to New York, a city that can be magical and tough at once. Meanwhile, Paris is a grander, yet uninviting city, one that has culture and vibrancy that Frances cannot access. In Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, the animals long for their posh New York zoo, only to find that the Big Apple was too small all along for their ambitions. Why find one home, when you can travel with the circus seeing the world? Maybe Frances will have to go to the circus the next time she makes it to Paris.
What is your favorite movie by Noah Baumbach? Let us know in the comments below.