Noah Baumbach’s 2005 breakthrough "The Squid and the Whale" is a terrific film and one of the best of the last decade. Bold words, I know. The semiautobiographical story about married intellectuals facing a bitter divorce and their children caught in the crossfire feels less like a movie and more like a coping mechanism for Baumbach, confronting the small joys and overwhelming pains of his past.

It’s a great movie, but it should come with a warning; the dialogue and characters are so cutting and acidic, I was left looking for a Band-Aid when it was all done.

Eight years and a couple more scathing features later, Baumbach delivers "Frances Ha," a sweet Woody Allen-esque comedy that his honest, funny, acute screenplays can come with a light, tender touch, as well.

Indie darling Greta Gerwig (who had a nice little breakout after her role in Baumbach’s "Greenberg") stars as the title character, Frances Ha(ndley), a 27-year-old aspiring dancer living in New York with her best friend Sophie (Mickey Sumner). The two play-fight in the park and have entertaining hyper-intelligent rat-a-tat banter ("I tried to make a frittata, but it ended up more like a scramble") until Sophie decides it’s time to grow up and move out.

The move hurts Frances – in a sad irony, she broke up with an old boyfriend in order to stay with Sophie – but worse, she’s left without a place to stay and with barely enough money to get by. She ends up bumming it with some friends – a few young well-off NYC intellectuals, a snooty dance colleague – while trying to get her feet off the ground at the dance studio and get on her feet in life.

Put kindly, Frances is a disaster. She’s stuck in a bit of arrested development (it’s fitting she’s stuck teaching kids at the dance studio) and has been tossed in unfamiliar waters, with no idea where her life is going and every plan falling apart before her eyes. Her rich roommate Benji (Michael Zegen) called her "undateable," and she even admits, "she’s not a real person yet."

She’s a train wreck but of the most charming, jubilant kind, handling each setback with a smile, some more strained than others. The most popular scene in the film features Frances running several blocks mid-date for an ATM, only to fall on her face, get back up and arrive back to her date, panting, bleeding and as pleasant as ever.

It’s her character in a hilarious, perfectly edited nutshell, and Gerwig plays it like she’s been in Frances’ skin for years (considering she co-wrote it with Baumbach, she may have). Even since "Greenberg," Gerwig has continually flirted with hitting it big but never quite pulled it off. Her largest role to date was the romantic interest in the "Arthur" remake, which hit theaters with all the impact of a marshmallow.

It’s a shame because she’s an endearing presence, a mix of clumsy and graceful, subdued and expressive, awkward and natural. She can exchange snappy banter about Virginia Wolff while just a few scenes later deliver a well-timed pratfall just as effortlessly. The combination of actress and character is so warm and contagiously pleasant that when she’s prancing down the street to the tune of David Bowie’s "Modern Love" – blissfully edited yet again – I wanted to join in.

The rest of "Frances Ha" follows in her buoyant dance steps. The clever, only occasionally forced dialogue comes through nicely on the title’s second word, bouncing from character to character with easy humor. The soundtrack is a jaunty mix of French bistro music and hits like Hot Chocolate’s "Every 1’s a Winner" that feels retro and fresh all at once. Same goes for the black-and-white cinematography, which gives the proceedings a timeless look that the rest of the movie earns.

The story is a little aimless, taking several detours to places like Paris and Sacramento, and breezily flitting from scene to scene, sometimes to simply celebrate the joy of a tax rebate for a minute or two. But then again so is our main character, cautiously tip-toeing toward the rest of her life. She makes for delightful company, a rare – but very welcome – thing for Baumbach.