Mistress America

Taking place in New York City about now, "Mistress America" focuses on the life of Tracy who is a freshman in college. She aspires to be a writer—easy to tell because she's aloof, detached, alone, and looking for friends. Her mom's getting remarried so Tracy has an older sister-to-be in Brooke, one of those cinematic forces of nature like a young Katherine Hepburn, perhaps. Brooke takes Tracy into her life of late-night concert performances, high-output spinning, fashion, finance, clandestine apartments, absent lovers, and a nascent restaurant business. In many ways, this is a buddy movie as Tracy learns fierce independence from Brooke, who she greatly admires.

Like all buddy movies, Tracy's and Brooke's relationship has ups and downs, complicated by the literary understory. Then the whirlwind pace goes surreal as the New Yorkers head to Greenwich, Connecticut in search of—something. We think it's one thing but it's not. I guess Greenwich, seat of the uber wealthy in the US financial arena, is actually a surreal place.

This is an intensely witty movie with a very chewy script handled ably by the very smart cast. Many call "Mistress America" a comedy but funny is clearly not this movie's main goal. To call it a "screwball comedy" is to not properly describe its intellect. The movie is saying something about envying the lives of others, which most of us do to one extent or another. It's a thoughtful movie, and it will be uncomfortable for some to watch if you, like Tracy, are not centered within your own mind and body. And after all, who is?

We saw this movie thanks to the San Jose Camera Cinema Club.

For those who saw Frances Ha, the film's overall writing style and pacing will not be a surprise. Saying that however, it doesn't overdo the "cleverness" in the same way Frances Ha did, and overall it kind of works better. Greta Gerwig has never been better. She really steals every second of her screen time and is really just such a marvel to watch. She infuses her own acting style to this in a different way, so it doesn't really feel like any of her other characters. The whole cast here is aces, and it leads to such a great work from the entire ensemble at Mimi Rose's house. I definitely recommend this. It's fast and it's a marvel to watch the characters say the dialogue in such a fun, quick way.

I'm a big Noah Baumbach fan. He is completely able to come up with clever, simple, original ideas and make a usually great movie out of them; but to my dismay, Baumbach's "Mistress America" is a bit of a miss.

The story was very nice, but the writing's cheap/obvious execution ruins it. There is a famous saying that originates from Anton Chekhov that is commonly used in film schools: "show don't tell." This picture breaks that simple saying in almost all of its lines, as characters will just randomly blurt out how they feel - all while keeping a neutral look on their face.

Baumbach has also made a living out of his quick wit and intellectual humor, but unfortunately in "Mistress America," he decided to throw intellect out the window.

There are a few redeeming factors: its Woody Allen-esque use of camera-work, fitting choice of music, and easy to like characters.

Though it doesn't live up to his previous films, "Mistress America" should be watched by Baumbach fans. If you don't like him, you won't like this; and if you haven't seen his other work, I recommend you watch that instead.

Tracy is a freshman student with no friends and a superiority complex (do we have a correlation here?), who's disillusioned that her lack of popularity isn't suddenly transformed when she moves to New York and starts college. It obviously didn't occur to her that wherever she goes she'll still be herself. It is also a rude awakening for her to find that once at college her assumed genius does not set her above those around her now she's in a more competitive peer group - in short she's not only dull but decidedly average as well.

Feeling particularly low she latches on to her "older" step sister to be Lola, a Bohemian human twitter feed who sprouts a constant diatribe about anything and everything, has no discernible talent, who seems to think her "popularity" will somehow equate to success, and yet somehow has made it to 30 without having to face the reality that it won't.

Of course Tracy recognises that Lola is a long overdue car crash waiting to happen but cynically hops on for the ride as a source of material for her writing. So both physically and metaphorically they set off on a journey that allows Lola to realise her short-comings forces for Tracy's to hold up a mirror to her own life, though neither seem to do much with this new found self-knowledge.

Because college students in films are invariable played by actresses and actors in their mid-20's the actual age gap between the "sisters" is somewhat less than it's supposed to be so the pair look more like contemporaries than big and little sister which gives an air of unbelievably to their relationship. Not a lot happens in the film, there's no great character arcs, both the characters and dialogue are unbelievable - it comes across as a pseudo-sophisticated Woody Allen stage play that's inexplicably been put on the big screen. It's not terrible, there are some laughs, but like Tracy it comes across as both mediocre and ultimately forgettable. At least at less than 90 minutes it's short enough not to overstay it's welcome. Perhaps it will say more to Americans or more specifically New Yorkers, given the importance of the location to the narrative.

Over the years, I've liked some of Noah Baumbach's films, but not others, and this one I'm sorry to say was disappointing. Here, Baumbach directed and co-wrote the script with Greta Gerwig.

The underrated and most talented Gerwig also stars in the movie as Brooke, a free spirit who's leading a whirlwind of a life, with a myriad of part-time jobs but looking to close a deal on a new restaurant, in the Williamsburg section of NYC.

Lola Kirke co-stars here and gives a fine performance as Tracy, a first year college student at Barnard, aspiring to be a writer but having loads of problems fitting in on campus. Brooke and Tracy are slated to be step sisters when Brooke's father and Tracy's mother marry in the near future.

Thus, when Tracy, at the urging of her mother, calls Brooke and they meet for the first time in Manhattan, Tracy finds herself willingly caught up in the cyclone of Brooke's life. Tracy even finds herself using Brooke as inspiration for her short story that she submits to the prestigious Mobius Literary Society at her college.

All of this seems well and good, but for me the problem with the movie is in the dialogue, which often came across to me as mostly pretentious, whiny, and even mean-spirited at times. Thus, the characters that emerged were so shallow and self-absorbed that I mostly lost interest in what would happen to any of them. When that happens to me as I view a film, I start checking the time wondering when it will be finally over.

Overall, Gerwig and Kirke are solid here, with many actors in supporting roles adding much as well. However, as mentioned the occasional clever or humorous line was overshadowed by dialogue that came across to me as affected and pretentious, leading to surfacy and shallow characters.