‘Mistress America’ Ultimately Wears Out Her Welcome

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Rating: 3.0/5.0

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.

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.

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

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.

Unlike Gerwig’s “Frances Ha” – which was a similar contemplation on that in between time after college but before new graduates have found the direction they want their lives to go in – her character here is just an avalanche of half baked ideas that seem to flow out of her like a geyser. She’s ostensibly opening a restaurant in Brooklyn with a rich douchebag of a Greek boyfriend who she describes as the type of person she’d hate if she wasn’t in love with him. But it’s given hardly any more weight than any of her other pursuits, which include party girl around town, tee-shirt designer, and spin class teacher, among others. Nothing is dwelled upon, and she’s headed in a million different directions all at once. And while Gerwig is able to nail some individual moments in scenes, the character becomes a real chore to be around.

Michael Shear, Lola Kirke
Michael Shear and Lola Kirke Share a Scene in ‘Mistress America’
Photo credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures

I did not get tired of Lola Kirke though. She and Gerwig have a good sisterly chemistry and fall right into their roles perfectly, with Kirke providing pitch perfect support when Gerwig begins to flounder. She’s full of charm, insight, and a McSweeney’s kind of literary bent that’s quite appealing.

The film consistently finds insights and turns of a phrase that clicked with me. When Kirke’s fellow writer says to her that he thinks he’s a genius but he wishes he could just fast forward to the moment when everyone knows it already, I was happy to be in that theater. This is a movie about sisters and youth and finding your way and having the courage to do it – but despite it’s brief 84-minute running time, it runs out of gas after about an hour. And then it doesn’t so much end as simply fade away like so many ephemeral pop songs on the radio. If this were a 3-minute pop song it would be a great one. As a barely feature length movie, it sadly wears out its welcome.

”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”

HollywoodChicago.com contributor Spike Walters

By SPIKE WALTERS
Contributor
HollywoodChicago.com
spike@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2015 Spike Walters, HollywoodChicago.com

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