SFIFF59 Preview: Maggie’s Plan (Rebecca Miller)

Erik Anderson April 15, 2016

In Maggie’s Plan, Greta Gerwig plays the titular character, a woman on the verge of artificially inseminating herself with the DNA of a former college acquaintance-turned-pickle-entrepreneur named Guy (played by Vikings‘ Travis Fimmel). Gerwig is someone who I always feel would make a great muse for Woody Allen. She was indeed in a Woody Allen film, To Rome with Love, before she was more well known but it’s a surprise that she hasn’t done more with him. Interestingly enough, writer/director Rebecca Miller’s film feels a lot like a Woody Allen film; great, jazzy score, deeply felt New York inhabitants and a quick wit from a smart and funny script.

When Maggie meets John (Boyhood‘s Ethan Hawke), a married “ficto-critical anthropologist” mired in writing his great American novel, she diverts her single mother plans by falling in love for the first time. Gerwig delivers her best performance to date here, finding a delicate balance between assertive intelligence and charming naiveté, it that feels like a more mature version of her characters from Frances Ha and Mistress America (which, for me, ran the gamut of blindly foolish to willfully arrogant). Also featuring Bill Hader and Maya Rudolph as Maggie’s ex and co-worker, respectively, Maggie’s Plan is a rich slice of Manhattan dramedy; full of humor and observation of modern romance that’s never too bitter or too sentimental.

Julianne Moore as Georgette, Maggie's Plan — **Julianne Moore as Georgette, Maggie’s Plan**

Oscar-winner Julianne Moore (I will never, ever tire of saying that) shines at John’s Danish wife Georgette. She brilliantly balances the icy tone of a self-absorbed academic with the acerbic wit and timing of a true comedian. Her costuming is a glorious parade of oversized sweaters that make her look like a sheep that’s lost a ton of weight. Her accent is reminiscent of her Maude Lebowski from The Coen brothers’ The Big Lebowski and it’s delicious to hear her roll out lines like “No one unpacks commodity fetishism like you do” as a form foreplay sex talk.

Maggie’s Plan plays SFIFF59 on April 23, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. at the Victoria Theatre and April 26, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission. Go here for tickets. It will be released by Sony Pictures Classics in NY and LA on May 20th and wider May 27th.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.