Mistress America

Written by Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, Mistress America follows plucky teenager Tracy (Lola Kirke) as she arrives for college in New York and quickly discovers that the people around her aren’t quite as welcoming as she expected – with the character’s respite eventually coming in the form of a freespirited, exceedingly off-kilter figure named Brooke (Gerwig). Filmmaker Baumbach does a fantastic job of drawing the viewer into Mistress America right off the bat, as the movie benefits substantially from Kirke’s tremendously appealing turn as the compassionate central character – with Baumbach’s emphasis on Tracy’s trials and tribulations infusing the proceedings with an interesting (and often relatable) feel that proves impossible to resist (ie it’s difficult not to sympathize with the protagonist’s continuing efforts at fitting in). It’s clear, too, that the affable atmosphere is perpetuated by the fun relationship between Kirke and Gerwig’s respective characters, while the otherwise uneventful narrative receives a jolt of unexpected energy from Tracy’s decision to pilfer elements of Brooke’s life for a short story. The movie’s slow-but-steady descent into irrelevance is triggered by a mid-film trip to the house of a rival, with the almost relentless quirk of Baumbach and Gerwig’s screenplay growing more and more difficult to take. There’s little doubt, as well, that the continuous lack of reality (ie it’s all just so affected) prevents one from connecting to the more poignant moments that crop up towards the end, which, perhaps inevitably, cements Mistress America‘s place as a serious misfire from an excessively erratic filmmaker.

** out of ****