ridiculous rating

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

If a theme seems to be emerging out of Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach's collaborations it's that women's friendships are complex, loving and real. Their first collaboration together, Frances Ha, left me cold, but I was completely and utterly charmed by their second, Mistress America. Lola Kirke plays Tracy, an undergrad who is finding it difficult to fit in at university where everyone always seems one step ahead of her. Desperately alone she hesitantly contacts her soon to be step-sister, Brooke, whom she's never met before on her mother's suggestion. Almost immediately she falls for Brooke. Not in a romantic way, but to her Brooke seems the perfect embodiment of everything she wants to be. Wild, passionate, daring, exciting, warm and welcoming. Tracy spends her days being dazzled by Brooke and starts to write a short story about her that she calls Mistress America. Of course Brooke isn't the perfect person she imagines and as the movie goes on the limits of their friendship are uncomfortably tested. I do not particularly like Gerwig as an actress, but she works best here because she's more of a secondary character. Brooke is seen mostly through Tracy's loving eyes but we can see that she's slightly ridiculous and not all she's cracked up to be. Lola Kirke is fantastic as Tracy. The script is slightly uneven but everyone offers just enough crackling energy to make it really work. A delight of a film.

Mistress America is supposedly a quirky homage to screwball comedies from director Noah Baumbach. I think he should had taken advise from Peter Bogdanovich as to how to make modern screwball comedies.Tracy (Lola Kirke) is a misfit college freshman at a small university in New York where she is a little lonely and lost. She starts to hang out with her 30 year old step sister to be the malevolent Brooke (Greta Gerwig). Brooke's father is due to marry Tracy's mother.Tracy at first becomes captivated by Brooke's creativity, worldliness and carefree lifestyle. Brooke is angry that her previous creative ideas have been stolen and desires to open a restaurant but requires investors when her Greek boyfriend bales out. As explored in Baumbach's previous film 'When we're Young' the younger Tracy soon leeches from the older Brooke as she pilfers elements of Brooke's life for a short story.The film feels to much like a stage play, they literally do stand around as if they were on stage. They even deliver lines like the audience were in the same auditorium. The more people and talk over each other the film comes across as dull.If they did not mention things like Twitter and Google, I could swear the film was set in the 1980s as the soundtrack consists of 1980s mainly British synth music. Songs by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark turn up a few times.The film is in a minor key. It weaves from being smart and sassy to being just dull. At the end the younger Tracy realises that the older Brooke is destined for failure as she cannot follow up on her creativity. Tracy feels smug about it.

Just a few months ago, I could watch the excellent film While We're Young, directed by Noah Baumbach, and I now discovered that Mistress America, his most recent film, was available on a Video On Demand platform. I'm glad it was like that, because even though I wouldn't consider Mistress America as good as While We're Young (my favorite one in Baumbach's filmography as a director so far), it definitely ended up being quite an interesting movie which combines a solid story, a well defined structure and a cunning sense of humor which naturally flows from the situations and the eccentric personality of the characters. In this regard, I have to make the obligatory warning about the themes frequently handled in this particular facet of "indie" cinema: yes, it's another look to "pretty people's problems" which might seem ridiculous in any other context. In order to appreciate this kind of films, it's necessary to become an accomplice of the characters and accept their frivo... I'm sorry, "complicated" lives as something worthy to be contemplated. Some spectators might be incapable to take that leap, something which is perfectly valid. But when the narrative transcends those obstacles and expresses genuine substance, the experience can be interesting and very entertaining, like Mistress America. The nucleus of Mistress America lies on the relationship between the characters Tracy and Brooke, whose organic evolution depends on the solid performances from Lola Kirke and Greta Gerwig (respectively). Besides, they are accompanied by the good work from the supporting cast, including Heather Lind, Michael Chernus, Matthew Shear and Jasmien Cephas Jones; they are all unknown actors, but they feel absolutely credible and spontaneous in their roles. On the negative side of Mistress America, I have to mention a late revelation, which feels simultaneously predictable and artificial, whose purpose was introducing the classic last- minute conflict to create some drama and suspense about its resolution. Comparing Mistress America to other "indie" films, I liked it more than Frances Ha (which was also directed by Baumbach) and less than Drinking Buddies. But whatever the way it is, I think it deserves a recommendation, not only to those who are into "indie" cinema, but also the people disappointed by the bland and repetitive "studio" comedies. I don't know whether Baumbach will someday play for the "big leagues", but I think it might end up being interesting... or maybe, his style might get ruined. It's better not to find that out; I prefer more modest movies instead of an expensive disappointment.

Another Noah Baumbach–Greta Gerwig comedy about fragile young New Yorkers whose reach exceeds their grasp. Greta's "Frances Ha" character has evolved from a homeless 20-something art girl to a cash-strapped 30-yr-old It girl, Brooke, who's mentoring a young disciple, a bummed-out college freshman, Tracy (Lola Kirke). Sly, self-possessed Tracy doesn't seem like she has much to learn from flamboyant, foolish Brooke, her stepsister-to-be, but she becomes her willing accomplice in a scheme to raise capital from a wealthy frenemy couple. As with the search for the missing dinosaur bone in "Bringing Up Baby," the plot requires a trip to Connecticut.This sets the scene for a brilliant screwball-comedy showdown, with seven characters on camera—including a nosy neighbor and a bookclub mom who's waiting for her ride—all emoting, pitching and backbiting in a modernist Greenwich mansion. The dialogue is fast and funny (for the most part), the line readings a little stagy at times; some of the wannabe epigrams are pretty lame, but that's okay because most of the characters aren't nearly as clever as they think they are. Brooke and Tracy's smug, self-conscious prattle may be annoying at first, but the perfect comedic pacing of the closing scenes makes it all worthwhile …As with Baumbach's previous film, "While We're Young," there's a dark side. The picture of young creatives feeding vampirically on each other's ideas and identities (like Adam Driver's character in the earlier film) seems a little overdrawn. On the other hand, the portrayal of ambitious, vaguely talented Brooke waiting around for some new project—a theme restaurant or an edgy T-shirt design—to catapult her into the leisure class suggests that 30-somethings haven't changed much since way back in the day.PS—Seems like as soon as you've thought of the name "Mamie-Claire," the script for this one pretty much writes itself… "Mistress America" is one of the few decent films, btw, that's currently available on Time Warner VOD