Film Review: ‘Mistress America’ Ultimately Wears Out Her Welcome

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly versionE-mail page to friendE-mail page to friendPDF versionPDF version
Average: 5 (2 votes)

CHICAGO – “Mistress America” is a movie that works best in small doses. The film is chock-full of special moments, lines, and fragments of scenes, but it never really comes together as a cohesive film. I could see it easily taking on a second life once it hits streaming and YouTube.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.0/5.0
Rating: 3.0/5.0

As a 30-second distillation of a funny thought, idea, or insight it’s actually quite charming. The script by star Greta Gerwig and director Noah Baumbach has scores of quotable dialogue and beautifully written windows into a specific type of literary ennui, and the anxiety of trying to find your place in the world – but taken en masse it’s more exhausting than liberating.

Part of that is due to Gerwig’s character. She’s a 30-year-old motormouth and seemingly flighty at the same time, imparting both big personal bombshells and wild harebrained schemes in the same offhand way that she describes excitement about a new frozen yogurt machine. She is shallowly exciting in very small doses, and she’s just what her 18 year-old soon to be stepsister (Lola Kirke) needs.

Kirke portrays a lonely college freshman away from home in New York City. She makes a friend (Matthew Shear) in the forges of mutual rejection after they’re both left out of a prestigious literary society, but it is Gerwig seems to be the one who is living life to the fullest. She projects an image of being a young girl in the know who knows all the best clubs and all the fun parties, and all the right people, but it is merely the facade that covers her own emptiness. She is still striving for success, but doesn’t really have it, so she clings to youth and embraces Kirke as a sister in arms. For her part Kirke idolizes her, but sees through her to the longing inside.

”Mistress America” continues its limited release in Chicago on August 21st. See local listings for theaters and show times. Featuring Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke, Cindy Cheung, Matthew Shear, Michael Cherus and Heather Lind. Written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Directed by Noah Baumbach. Rated “R”

StarContinue reading for Spike Walters’ full review of “Mistress America.”

Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke
Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke in ‘Mistress America’
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures

StarContinue reading for Spike Walters’ full review of “Mistress America.”

User Login

Free Giveaway Mailing

TV, DVD, BLU-RAY & THEATER REVIEWS

  • Manhunt

    CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.

  • Topdog/Underdog, Invictus Theatre

    CHICAGO – When two brothers confront the sins of each other and it expands into a psychology of an entire race, it’s at a stage play found in Chicago’s Invictus Theatre Company production of “Topdog/Underdog,” now at their new home at the Windy City Playhouse through March 31st, 2024. Click TD/UD for tickets/info.

Advertisement



HollywoodChicago.com on Twitter

archive

HollywoodChicago.com Top Ten Discussions
referendum
tracker