Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig are at it again, "it" being what it means to be a 20- something in New York City. In "Mistress America," however, the lens and perspective shifts away from the character you'd expect a movie like to this to intimately follow (Gerwig's interesting, ambitious, never-boring Brooke) and instead observes her from an outsider's perspective (Tracy, played by Lola Kirke).

Tracy is instead the main character, a Barnard freshman studying literature and writing, trying to make her way through that formidable (and familiar) landscape. Inspiration strikes, however, when she meets Brooke, her future step-sister. Brooke is around 30, and she's been through the grinder both personally and professionally. She is an innovator who always has big ideas, and Tracy uses her life as the basis of a short story that she hopes will get her into the school's prestigious lit magazine.

Things get particularly interesting when Brooke finds herself locked out of her apartment one day and learns that her boyfriend has pulled all his financial support out of a restaurant they were just about to open together and she seeks a psychic for advice on where to turn next.

Through this blossoming relationship between Tracy and Brooke we observe the typical indie film "portrait of a Millennial" in a way that both mythologizes it (evidenced by Tracy's story/perception of Brooke) and makes it hit home. Brooke is quirky and her life is a melodrama, but it also feels very real. Baumbach and Gerwig's previous collaboration, "Frances Ha," also struck this seemingly contradictory chord of authenticity and whimsy. When there is a dissonance, it's softened by the knowledge that there's such emotional truth at the core of what they're doing.

Another way of putting it is that Baumbach and Gerwig aren't so interested in plot points and what happens. At less than 90 minutes, this movie about a relationship between a younger and older 20-something is not trying to show you something you've never seen before. What they do care about is the trajectory of the relationships between characters. It's hard not to see a piece of yourself in the characters, especially if you're of a similar age, and that holds our attention enough that "Mistress America" doesn't fall apart, even when it's not especially compelling.

"Mistress America" also tends to be be philosophical and angsty. The level of intellectual conversation is to a degree that rarely happens in real life, let alone in these perfect scene-length snippets, but again, like other parts of the film that gravitate closer to being over-the-top, the creative choice to lean that way comes from a strong and earnest desire to explore very relevant themes and ideas.

Frankly, Baumbach and Gerwig could tell a hundred different stories about coming of age in your 20s or 30s in a big city and I'd watch (especially at such a reasonable runtime). But even if you don't think you could, the effort they make to explore a unique "relationship" between two women in "Mistress America" and cast light on this familiar film from a new angle makes this particularly story worthwhile.

~Steven C

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If someone were to represent Britain as a woman, no doubt she would be 50 years older than Greta Gerwig and constantly looking back to a long gone heyday, yet haunted by dark secrets from the past.

But this is Mistress America, a comical personification of the American Dream, with some (but not too much) American reality thrown in. She chases the money, markets herself, engages in risky financial enterprises with bad follow through and finally reaps the inevitable lack of reward. In this, Baumbach seems to be suggesting America will have a similar fate, yet he is happy to watch the flame while it burns. The world is turning and Mavericks are dying out. Tracy (Lola Kirke) charts this demise with honesty and affection in the same way Baumbach is writing about America here.

It's in this allegorical approach the film shows most promise and offers more evidence of a change of style from Baumbach. But there is his safety zone, the middle class comedy of manners, the exuberant, wittily written dialogue. All very watchable, but what it amounts to in this love letter to America, it's hard to say. And Baumbach continues his habit of copping out at the end - neither Tracy nor Brooke really change, even when they apparently forgive each other. The last lines in the film are especially odd, I won't divulge them, but if you understand the angle of my review that Brooke is really America, you'll see what I mean.

However, I hope Baumbach continues his progression and hopefully returns to the excellence of Margot At The Wedding territory.

America ... does she talk a lot? Is this going to be political? Well not really, and especially not as charged as anything you could say right now (2019), where no matter what side you prefer (Dems/Rep), you will likely not hear the others out. So let's leave that behind and maybe when you are reading this, it won't play a role anymore anyway ... let's hope so.

Let's take this for what it is. A movie where people talk a lot, make a lot of snarky (funny to some) comments about society, about themselves about relationships about so many other things regarding life ... Now if that sounds like something you have seen one of the leading ladies (Greta) in it - you are not off at all. That is her thing though in this case, there is someone else who plays the very main character. The characters may do stuff that may feel wrong (because they are morally speaking), depending on how much you care also - hopefully that won't muddle the experience for you. Because this is more than decent enough if you like dramas ...