“On a String” is an Ode to the Pain and Absurdity of Freelancing
Ah, the life of a freelancer. It’s ruled by chaos and juggling a million different gigs in the hope that all of them add up to not only enough money to survive, but a future where there is nothing to balance. Isabel Hagen’s On a String premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. It’s a New York story through and through, and one that comes from a personal place as Hagen, like her character, is a Julliard-trained violist. On a String sees the city as its own character, but it’s also filled to the brim with the sort of eccentric people only NYC can provide.
Isabel (Hagen) went to Julliard to study the viola, but she hasn’t found the post-graduation success she’d been hoping for. She plays in a quartet with her best friend (Ling Ling Huang), and they’re hired to perform at weddings, funerals, proposals, and house parties. Anything and everything for a paycheck is how Isabel seems to approach gigs. A glimmer of hope arrives with the return of Dan (John Kroner), Isabel’s toxic ex-boyfriend, who informs her of upcoming auditions for a viola chair in the New York Philharmonic.
The opening scene finds Isabel in a park, playing her viola as a guy awkwardly proposes to his girlfriend. Unfortunately, it quickly becomes clear that the girlfriend doesn’t want this next stage in the relationship. It’s a scene that perfectly encapsulates the awkwardness of Isabel’s freelancing grind. As this man’s world is falling apart, there’s also a random woman standing off to the side, waiting to be paid. Anyone who’s worked odd jobs while trying to cobble together an existence as they focus on their art will find something to relate to in On a String. It’s a delicate, overwhelming balance to keep your head above water, let alone try to make real progress in the actual goal you want to be focusing on. On a String captures the unstable uncertainty that an artist must endure.
courtesy of Joke Zero
One of the quintessential coming-of-age movies about young women trying to find their artistic footing in New York City is Greta Gerwig’s Frances Ha. Gerwig isn’t the director, but Frances Ha feels like it’s her movie. She stars and shares co-writing credits with Noah Baumbach, who directed the film, but her trademark emotional screw-up sensibilities are on full display. Hagen feels like a spiritual successor to Gerwig’s mumblecore days in On a String. In certain lights and angles, Hagen even has a passing resemblance to Gerwig, but the voice of On a String is never disingenuous, nor does it seem that Hagen is attempting to capture the magic of early Gerwig. There’s just connective tissue between Frances Ha and On a String. It’s in the loneliness of the pursuit of an artistic career and the effort to balance it with friendships so intrinsically tied to that same art. How does friendship endure when you and your best friend are up for the same dream jobs?
On a String rides that same line of realistic, absurdist humor. There’s a horrifyingly awkward man-with-a-guitar sequence (something that can also be seen in Gerwig’s Barbie) that’s painful, yet deeply funny for anyone who’s ever been trapped by a man who wants to show off his mediocre guitar skills. Hagen’s wit is sharp, and the pace of the script keeps things moving at a good clip, lingering where it needs to and plowing through at other moments. It may not fully feel like it fits the title of mumblecore, but it’s close, and for those of us who miss those talky, shaggy, underdog films, On a String will absolutely scratch that itch. Full of fantastic one-liners, beautiful moments that capture the indecision of early adulthood, and charmingly quirky side characters, On a String marks a fantastic debut from Hagen.
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