'Mistress America' A Review

Mistress America is a comedy about a college freshman Tracy(Lola Kirke) in New York City and her burgeoning friendship with her older worldly soon-to-be stepsister Brooke(Greta Gerwig). Tracy begins college and has trouble finding her place, at the advise of her mother she calls her mother's fiance's 30 year old daughter who is funny, adventurous, and somewhat self-involved. Tracy begins writing fiction about Brooke and the friendship becomes more complicated as she mines their shared experiences for inspiration.

There are two major issues with the film. First a total inconsistency in tone, it is at points a coming of age story, a road trip movie, a college comedy, and an over-the-top farce. Each fine enough in and of themselves but taken together it is a discordant mess. The second issue is the characters and as the film is character driven it is a difficult problem to surmount. Although more palatable than 2013's Frances Ha Gerwig again plays a relatively shallow unlikable character, in Mistress America we are at least encouraged to laugh at her a bit more but still the film in a way makes her some sort of 21st century heroine. Which as a self-absorbed, affluent, immature thirty something is a difficult pill to swallow. All the characters in the film save for Kirke are either unredeemable or uncompelling either because of their wealth or their narcissism. And Kirke's character is only just worthy of exploration, only salvaged by the actor's excellent portrayal, despite the pitfalls of the script.

Another installment in the Gerwig-Baumbach exploration of millennial white privilege and the existential problems of growing up.

Don't See It.