I really, really didn't like Frances Ha. I know many people did, but I wasn't one of them. And now Noah Baumbach has teamed up with Greta Gerwig yet again for Mistress America. Let me tell you that this collaboration is much more successful than their previous effort.
Let's not get into any comparisons between the two movies though. Sure, they share the same writer/director and star, are both set in New York, and are, in a way, stories about maturing and growing up, but that's where the similarities end. While Frances Ha was focused entirely on Gerwig's character (to that movie's disadvantage), Mistress America features another protagonist in the form of newcomer Lola Kirke. She plays college freshman Tracy who's new to NYC and hasn't quite figured out how to fit in yet. Thanks to her mother getting married she meets her soon-to-be sister Brooke, played by Gerwig. Brooke is quite a character. She's full of crazy ideas, does everything and nothing, a whirlwind of enthusiasm and energy. Tracy, as an aspiring writer, starts spending more and more time with Brooke, using her as inspiration for her literary endeavors.
If the Brooke character is the motor driving the story, Lola Kirke's Tracy is our vessel throughout the journey. We see Brooke through her eyes, see her feeling lost in a new environment, and being inspired by her relationship with Brooke. While this may not make for a great, original story, it gets its characters and dialogue so damn right, it is a delight from beginning to end. It also helps that there's a prolonged sequence towards the end of the movie where Brooke, Tracy and two of her college friends end up in a Connecticut mansion and the movie all of a sudden turns into pure screwball comedy gold. It shouldn't work but somehow all actors involved are just on their A-game. It's easily one of the funniest extended scenes I've seen all year.
Where other director's would have chosen a more timid approach to accentuate Brooke's out-there-ness, Baumbach as a director has matured to the point where he embraces the chaos, keeps the pace up and the energy levels high. It's been a long way from his heavier dramedies like The Squid and the Whale and Greenberg but the wait has been worth it. Mistress America is just great entertainment and I couldn't get enough of it.
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