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| Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke in "Mistress America" |
I want to be friends with the new Noah Baumbach movie "Mistress America". I want to give it a hug. I can't explain it, but I want to say its jokes and I want to walk along the streets of New York bouncing to its music, arms linked with my best friend. I want it to inspire me and I want to inspire it. I look at this movie in much the same way Tracy Fishko (Lola Kirke) looks at Brooke Cardinas (Greta Gerwig), with wide eyes and curiosity, skepticism and admiration. Watching "Mistress America", you lean in to catch every joke then back off to notice each facial expression and response. People talk over each other as much as they talk to each other. But you can't be friends with a movie unfortunately, and Tracy cannot be Brooke. But she can be inspired by her, she can use her. She's a short story writer, and a frustrated one. Tracy doesn't fit in at her new dorm, she doesn't know anyone in the city, and she doesn't know what to write about. Enter Brooke, an impossibly irresistible girl-about-town, whose Father is marrying Tracy's Mother. Brooke quickly becomes something of a muse to Tracy, a character ready made for the page. All of this is unbeknownst to Brooke, of course. To Tracy, she appears fully formed, a literary creation and screwball heroine all at once. She's everywhere but nowhere, flighty and focused, dizzying yet stable. She lives in Times Square of all places, knows everyone, dances on stage at concerts, and to Tracy she's everything she needs at this exact moment. She is a sea of contradictions, happily ever after. Who wouldn't want to write about her? Baumbach co-wrote the screenplay with the film's star, Greta Gerwig, this being their second collaboration after 2012's "Frances Ha", and third film working together. ("Greenberg" came out in 2010.) "Mistress America" is about art, ambition, and most importantly, youth, much like Baumbach's film from earlier this year, "While We're Young". In that one, Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts begin a friendship with a much younger couple played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried, in the hopes that their enthusiasm and lust for life may rub off on them, age be damned. "Mistress America" turns that story inside out, we now have someone very young, 18, looking to someone just entering their 30s hoping for a way in, a way to be. As a portrait of youth, "Mistress America" doesn't condescend to young people the way "While We're Young" did. Tracy is serious but curious, a freshman already poised and graceful. She clearly wants to fit in, but she sees that Brooke, by stepping away from convention, has created a life out of never fitting in, being herself, looking inward, being a character. Does Tracy want to be like Brooke though, or just watch her, humor her, be there for her? Does she really believe in Brooke's business idea: a bar/ restaurant/ salon/ library called Mom's? The answer isn't very clear, and it's a testament to Baumbach and Gerwig that this brief 83 minute cloud of a movie probably can't answer that question either and doesn't want to. Personally, I loved Brooke, but I could never be her friend, I could never actually believe anything she said. I couldn't even say I respect her. One of the best scenes in the movie is when Brooke and Tracy are at a bar, and Brooke is approached by an old classmate from High School. Brooke doesn't remember the girl, but the girl remembers Brooke, and it turns out she was awful to this person. A bully, but a popular one. The scene made me laugh. Brooke's obliviousness was hilarious, but essentially the moment was painful. Tracy's reaction was my reaction, supportive laughter combined with pity and disgust. That's the problem with inspiration, it usually fizzles out. How we want to be changes, and how we see others changes, regardless of age and perspective. Baumbach and Gerwig know this and "Mistress America", their best film yet, knows this too.
