Mistress America

I'm having a lot of trouble reviewing this film. On one hand, I really like all the actors, and even their performances, but I don't think this film really worked on all the levels it attempted to. Greta Gerwig is one of the top up and coming actresses working today, and i actually thought Lola Kirke did well in her first starring role. But the narrative never grabbed me like Noah Baumbach's other film Frances Ha did, also with Gerwig.

But the film is also not at all bad, in fact this may very well be the case of myself just not understanding what was intended with the script. It was just hard to buy into the premise when nothing is really set up at all. The film just pretty much jumps into the plot of Tracy and Brooke spending time together as they get to know each other before officially becoming step-sisters. Their relationship was interesting, but I didn't find it to be profound or anything like that. The latter half of the film takes place mainly in one area with close to 10 characters and it seemed to be way too dramatic and theatrical for a low budget story on a few relatively regular human beings.

It's unfortunate because the soundtrack and score are really quite good and seemed to fit for what they were going for at first, but the film just wasn't appealing enough for the score to really shine like it should have. I just feel like for a movie that is titled Mistress America, it should have been a more memorable outing. Sadly that's two Baumbach films this year that have been a bit of a letdown.

+Score/soundtrack

+Likable leads

-Why do I care about this story?

-Not much set up or payoff, to anything

5.5/10

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.

I hated every character in this film, so that's cool

This film tells the story of two young women who will become step sisters after their parents' marriage. They meet and bond quickly, and they go through life events in quick succession in the space of a few weeks.

"Mistress America" is a simple film that is dependent on dialogue and interesting characters. The quick pace and rapid fire dialogues remind me of Woody Allen films, and I think in here the dialogues are really good as they give the main characters distinct personalities. Brooke is very creative, bubbly, quirky but likable. Even the supporting characters are special, such as the jealous girlfriend and the rich woman who steals Brooke's ideas. There is so much going on in the film, even in the first ten minutes I thought I have already watched for much longer because so much has happened. I really enjoyed this charming film.

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.