Mistress America

source: Mistress America

A refreshing, if not entirely successful, change of pace for Noah Baumbach. Leaving behind the upper-crust east coast neurotics that pepper his other movies and make them sometimes intolerable, he focuses instead on the relationship between a young woman (Lola Kirke) and her soon-to-be sister-in-law (Greta Gerwig), a freewheeling spirit who the young girl takes on as a life mentor. "Mistress of America" feels very honest in its exploration of the thorniness that comes with admiration. Kirke looks to Gerwig as a kind of role model, but she also begins to realize that those we emulate are not infallible, and what we sometimes learn from them is how not to be. This lesson comes to Kirke at the expense of her relationship with Gerwig, and they have the predictable falling out, but the movie ends in a place that feels right. Just because we acknowledge that role models aren't perfect doesn't mean they can't still be role models. Baumbach shoots for a zany screwball tone in "Mistress America" that doesn't really fit his talents. The strain is most noticeable in an extended scene set in the vast home of one of Gerwig's friends. I wanted to think it was funny, but mostly it just felt forced. But I'll take Baumbach's attempts at comedy, even if uneven, over the unbearable whiners in, say, "Margot at the Wedding," any day. Grade: B+

Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig are at it again, "it" being what it means to be a 20- something in New York City. In "Mistress America," however, the lens and perspective shifts away from the character you'd expect a movie like to this to intimately follow (Gerwig's interesting, ambitious, never-boring Brooke) and instead observes her from an outsider's perspective (Tracy, played by Lola Kirke). Tracy is instead the main character, a Barnard freshman studying literature and writing, trying to make her way through that formidable (and familiar) landscape. Inspiration strikes, however, when she meets Brooke, her future step-sister. Brooke is around 30, and she's been through the grinder both personally and professionally. She is an innovator who always has big ideas, and Tracy uses her life as the basis of a short story that she hopes will get her into the school's prestigious lit magazine. Things get particularly interesting when Brooke finds herself locked out of her apartment one day and learns that her boyfriend has pulled all his financial support out of a restaurant they were just about to open together and she seeks a psychic for advice on where to turn next. Through this blossoming relationship between Tracy and Brooke we observe the typical indie film "portrait of a Millennial" in a way that both mythologizes it (evidenced by Tracy's story/perception of Brooke) and makes it hit home. Brooke is quirky and her life is a melodrama, but it also feels very real. Baumbach and Gerwig's previous collaboration, "Frances Ha," also struck this seemingly contradictory chord of authenticity and whimsy. When there is a dissonance, it's softened by the knowledge that there's such emotional truth at the core of what they're doing. Another way of putting it is that Baumbach and Gerwig aren't so interested in plot points and what happens. At less than 90 minutes, this movie about a relationship between a younger and older 20-something is not trying to show you something you've never seen before. What they do care about is the trajectory of the relationships between characters. It's hard not to see a piece of yourself in the characters, especially if you're of a similar age, and that holds our attention enough that "Mistress America" doesn't fall apart, even when it's not especially compelling. "Mistress America" also tends to be be philosophical and angsty. The level of intellectual conversation is to a degree that rarely happens in real life, let alone in these perfect scene-length snippets, but again, like other parts of the film that gravitate closer to being over-the-top, the creative choice to lean that way comes from a strong and earnest desire to explore very relevant themes and ideas. Frankly, Baumbach and Gerwig could tell a hundred different stories about coming of age in your 20s or 30s in a big city and I'd watch (especially at such a reasonable runtime). But even if you don't think you could, the effort they make to explore a unique "relationship" between two women in "Mistress America" and cast light on this familiar film from a new angle makes this particularly story worthwhile. ~Steven C Thanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

I like Greta Gerwig. I didnt like her in this though. Her wife/husband partnership with the director Noah Baumbach the movies are a little hit and miss and this one was a miss. The endless relentless uninteresting dialogue just did my head in. The mansion scene seemed to go on for eternity. Generally most of the characters were unlikeable. Oh Lola character mom (Kathyrn Erbe) seemed nice. Kinda similar vein to Woody Allen movie without the star names. Greta is a better actress than what she had to work with in this movie. Anyway I wouldnt recommend this one. One plus is that it is short (84 minutes). Another plus point the use of a song I hadnt heard for a while, OMD Souvenoir.