A woman’s quest to write her wrongs includes a clash with the nemesis who stole everything from her, in “Mistress America”. Tracy (Lola Kirke) is a lonely college freshman living in New York, having neither the exciting university experience nor the glamorous metropolitan lifestyle she envisioned. But when she is taken in by her soon to be stepsister, Brooke (Greta Gerwig), a resident of Times Square and adventurous gal about town, she is rescued from her disappointment and seduced by Brooke’s alluringly mad schemes. Brooke’s story is about what could’ve been from one of her former best friends who stole her boyfriend, dream job, and even twin cats. Do you ever have that kind of film experience where the critics rate a film so high, and because of that, your expectations are big going into the movie? “Mistress America” proved to me that pretentious film critics haven’t been able to remove themselves from Director Noah Baumbach’s work since the day he started making films. Between this and “While Were Young”, i find myself distancing myself more and more from the creative source who penned “Fantastic Mister Fox” or “Francis Ha”. To me, it seems like he is a solid screenwriter, but his direction leaves more to be desired with what translates on camera. There isn’t much wrong technically with the film. It’s got a solid 80’s John Hughes musical score and even goes so far to borrow a theme from “The Breakfast Club”. If it’s not the same track, then it’s somebody whose soul inspiration was those very same tones. The film also has some solid improv moments, where characters have to remember long winded dialogue bits before the camera changes angles. Some of these scenes being done on one single shot are impressive. I only wish that the good outweighed the bad. What really irks me about this film is that whole New York setting, complete with hipster ensemble that completely ruined “While Were Young”, earlier this year. Baumbach seems OK with making his characters as detestable and self centered as possible and we’re supposed to understand because it’s New York. I don’t understand what benefit you accomplish from making your content relatable to such a small area compared to the rest of the world around it. Nobody talks or acts like these people. In fact, i don’t even know if New Yorkers are like this. The biggest of this tragic 79 minute sit (more on that later), stems from Gerwig’s character Brooke. She is my least favorite character in any film in 2015, and that is a testament to some of the trash i write about. It’s clear from watching the trailer that she is a bit selfish, but Lord i had no idea. She goes on these long ramblings like any words coming from her mouth will change the way we live our lives, she doesn’t listen to other people’s stories, and most of all she tries to commit the very same act that was done to her; stealing back her former beau. I never wanted to spend a sitting with this girl, let alone ten minutes of my life that i will never get back. Picture Alicia Silverstone’s character Cher in “Clueless”, without the third act that changed her around and made her more of a person who gives back. The result is that of Gerwig’s character. I don’t think she is a terrible actress or anything, but she has only shown me one range of the emotional stratosphere. Considering the reviews were so praising of her performance in this, i can only assume the critics didn’t actually watch the movie. The dialogue is fast moving, but nothing ever made me laugh, considering this is a comedy. I mentioned the film’s run time being extremely short, and this isn’t more evident than during a final twenty minutes when the movie changes directions so many times. Why couldn’t they just slow everything down, spread these events out, and give the movie a longer run time by twenty minutes, so the audience can soak everything in? “Mistress America” is purely a dialogue piece that is squandered away by character performances that overstay their welcome. If these people don’t listen to each other, why would anyone ever listen to them?

4/10