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Critics Consensus: Mistress America brings out the best in collaborators Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, distilling its star's charm and director's dark wit into a ferociously funny co-written story.
Critic Consensus: Mistress America brings out the best in collaborators Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, distilling its star's charm and director's dark wit into a ferociously funny co-written story.
All Critics (171) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (139) | Rotten (32)
Noah Baumbach is one of those successful directors who's obsessed with failure.
The difference between a good screwball comedy and a great one is that you care about the screwballs, and in that sense, Mistress America is great indeed.
Mistress America isn't a deep psychological examination of women's friendships. First and foremost, it's a comedy, and it's simply hilarious.
"Mistress America" is comedy at its best - thoughtful and real while consistently riotous.
Despite clocking in at a skinny 84 minutes, Mistress America overstays its welcome.
Mistress America is not a new comic-book movie, although Greta Gerwig, who stars, has a kind of stand-tall, hands-on-hips superhero vibe about her.
Near the end, the story becomes central in a moral quandary that Baumbach and Gerwig are smart enough not to resolve with a tidy answer. Is it stealing? Does it matter?
By a weird fidelity to a specific vernacular, Mistress America is an invented landscape not unlike Star Wars. The soundtrack has an '80s feel, the setting is contemporary and Greta Gerwig channels Katherine Hepburn.
Mistress America is, despite it's wobbles and preference for humour over depth, a delightful diversion from Baumbach's typically weighty output and a star-show for the pair of performers at its centre.
I loved Kirke and Gerwig's megadramatic line readings. Everything they do is underlined.
This short film (less than 90 minutes) starts out entertainingly enough but soon wears out its welcome on the way to an ending suggesting Baumbach and co may love this unbridled character more than we do.
It's wordy, smug and, eventually, a tad trying. Kirke, however, is terrific.
This seemed okay. I would like yo watch it again before reviewing as the copy I watched was faulty and I missed a few bits. From what I saw, just the type of indie movie I enjoy.
Super Reviewer
Lola Kirke as Tracy and Greta Gerwig as Brooke may soon be step-sisters. They meet in New York and hit it off. Tracy wants to be a writer, but is not very worldly. In her new opinionated and thoroughly modern friend and soon-to-be family member, Tracy sees Brooke as a useful subject for launching her career in semi-fiction. Brooke is an odd creation by Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Several quirky characters join the two girls in their adventure, people's feelings are hurt, relationships fall apart, and the laughs in this comedy are highly intellectual situational.
It is great to see a Noah Baumbach movie that doesn't try my patience for a change with his insufferable characters, as he crafts a delightful story that works really well precisely because it understands that their flaws don't make them at all lovable or cute in their pathetic quirkiness.
Good grief, Brooke Cardenas is incredibly self-absorbed. You'll snicker. You'll smile occasionally, but the sum total adds precious little value. Noah Baumbach has been making movies for 2 decades now. Mistress America is his 9th directorial effort and his 3rd collaboration with Greta Gerwig. They're a couple in real life and I will admit the relationship has actually made his characters more pleasant. Brooke has a sunny disposition at least, but she's too self-indulgent to truly embrace. The whole shebang climaxes (a most charitably chosen verb) over an act of betrayal. The acrimonious finale takes place in the upscale home of Brooke's ex-fiance (Michael Chernus) and his wife, Mamie-Claire (Heather Lind). She was once Brooke's best friend, now mortal enemy. A coterie of supporting players present weigh in on Brooke and Tracy's friendship. The mixed message of the piece leaves the viewer in a state of flux. Is Brooke life-affirming? Is Brooke a disorganized mess? She's got moxie, sure, but inherently flawed as well. So what's the point? To worship at the altar of an individual who is shamelessly narcissistic apparently. fastfilmreviews.com
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