Dir: Joe Swanberg | Cast: Greta Gerwig, Kent Osbourne, Andrew Bajalski, Mark Duplass | US 2007 84’
Hannah wants to be a playwright. She spends a Chicago summer interning at a production company in this fly-on-the wall off-beat look at friendship, ambition and the quest for happiness.
If only all internships were all this easy. Not only is she bright, she’s also popular and spends the time hanging around chatting and falling in and out of love with her colleagues who are supposedly working on a TV comedy series.
In reality they are the independent filmmakers, Kent Osborne (Matt), Andrew Bujalski (Paul) and Mark Duplass (Mike) who worked collaboratively with director Joe Swanberg to make this film while taking part in an indie summer camp in 2006.
Hannah (Greta Gerwig) is fresh and frisky but inherently insecure and dissatisfied with her life. This warts and all portrayal of blossoming talent has plenty of fun and insight as well awkward moments although at times it verges on the self-indulgent. Meredith Taylor ©
ON BFI PLAYER FROM 10 February 2025