"Mistress America" - Film Review
Before there was Lady Bird, there was Mistress America. And despite the fact that Mistress America is not a solo project from Greta Gerwig, her artistic footprint is evident in every facet of this movie. Co-written with Noah Baumbach (and directed by Baumbach), Mistress America is about Tracy Fishko (Lola Kirke), an incoming college freshman at Barnard College in New York City. The usual freshman loneliness sets in quickly, and Tracy’s mother encourages her to call her soon-to-be-step-sister, Brooke Cardinas (Greta Gerwig).
Brooke Cardinas is a whirlwind of a person. She goes from talking about ice cream to talking about how she saw her mother pass away to explaining that she’s an autodidact. She leads the kind of Manhattan lifestyle that would make just about anyone jealous, at least in theory. She knows where all the good parties are and, even better, where the exclusive after-parties are. To Tracy, she seems a bit like a goddess, the antithesis of herself. Sure, Brooke lives in a studio apartment that’s technically zoned for commercial use only and she gets locked out from time to time by city officials, but that’s sort of glamorous to Tracy. At least it is in a gritty, New York way.
At its core, Mistress America is about loneliness and the different ways people try to find their way through life. Perhaps one of the most poignant monologues in recent years comes from Brooke. Toward the end of the movie, when her life isn’t so glamorous anymore, she talks honestly about how in love with the world she is, but how unable she is to make herself thrive in it. The monologue is a surprise that sneaks up on the audience in a movie that is mostly upbeat, and also has a hilarious scene involving an existential crisis over pasta shapes. It could feel out of place if it didn’t resonate so sincerely. Baumbach and Gerwig walked a similar balance beam of sincerity and oddball antics in their other writing collaboration, Frances Ha. It works so well because it’s an accurate reflection of what life is really like for most of us. Absurdity, exuberance, hope, loss. None of those exist equally in life or in Mistress America, and both are all the better for that.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
While Brooke may be New York’s It Party Girl, her real dream is to open a restaurant called Mom’s. She imagines a place with a warm hearth and mismatched tables, chairs, dishes, and cutlery. Brooke wants Mom’s to feel like a place anyone can come home to. A place for bustling New Yorkers to stop, relax, and put their feet up. She also wants it to be a place that will let her finally stop running and put down roots. As much as Brooke wants to make Tracy and everyone else she surrounds herself with believe that the party lifestyle is what she wants, at the end of the day, Brooke wants to do something meaningful with her life. It’s a noble effort, and one everyone should strive for.
Mistress America is quirky and meandering, but never in a bad way. It feels like those days that stretched on forever when you were young. When you had few expectations, all the time in the world, and unshakeable confidence. Mistress America is all of that lit up like a bottle rocket.
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