Film Mistress America honestly portrays millennials
Director Noah Baumbach’s latest film is a much-needed improvement from his last disappointment, While We’re Young. Baumbach punctuates his new film Mistress America with an offbeat sense of humor that will inspire laughs throughout the audience. The film tells a story with painful accuracy and perception. The greatest part, however, is that the quick 126 minute movie runs like a play. The dialogue is quick, tight and read with impeccable timing from the cast.
Mistress America tells the story of Tracy (Lola Kirke), who experiences an unconventional first semester at Barnard College. Tracy’s first few weeks at college are every freshman’s nightmare. She struggles to make friends, get good grades and, most importantly, gain acceptance into a prestigious literary writing group. Just as Tracy becomes the loneliest sob story ever seen, she gets a call from Brooke (Greta Gerwig), the 30-something daughter of the man Tracy’s mom is about to marry. Tracy immediately finds herself enthralled by Brooke’s charm, as Brooke is the exact person one would expect to enter a boring protagonist’s life. She is more than life itself, catching everyone’s attention as she walks by.
Brooke provides the film with its quick wit and laughs, yet also highlights the dimensionality needed in movie characters. She didn’t need college apparently, as she is an autodidact trying to start a restaurant in honor of her dead mother. Before the waterworks start, keep in mind that Brooke is ruthlessly selfish. Her dreams are as big as New York City, but she shows no sign of being scared of failing. The best scene is when a girl from Brooke’s high school appears at the bar and stands up to Brooke after years of torment. Brooke shows no remorse and hurls insults.
Inspired by the incident, Tracy uses Brooke as her new subject to write on for her reapplication to the literary club. Though Tracy isn’t proud about writing slanderous thoughts in her short story about Brooke, she needs to prove herself as a college student who is just not doing “enough.” Tracy earns the envy of the passively competitive fellow literary reject, Tony (Matthew Shear). The story gets heated when Brooke, Tracy, Tony and Tony’s girlfriend take a road trip to Connecticut to visit Brooke’s old lover and best friend (now married) in order to ask them for money to invest in her restaurant. There could not be a more obvious set up for drama. However, writers — and real-life couple — Gerwig and Baumbach keep the dialogue so accurate for a 2015 audience that the theater was practically shaking from laughter.
This is because the film has heart at its core, but satire is its skin and bones. Brooke is a snapshot of the millennial generation. She floats from dream to dream without ever following through with one of her brilliant ideas. To embody this mentality, Brooke claims she is inflicted with an “unnamed illness” that causes her to lay in bed and watch television all day. It is an excellent observation of the younger generation of people. Additionally, Gerwig brings the other half of a satirical character besides the truth — humor. She is simply hilarious. She delivers her lines like the expert she is, and when the camera is just on her face, she commands it. Her presence is absolute dynamite. However, she does make room for newcomer Kirke. Kirke’s character is the other half of millennials — lonely, entitled and unapologetic for her actions.
Overall, Baumbach’s direction is masterful and has achieved a near-perfect movie. Mistress America is the film that America needs to successfully capture the spirit of millennials.