Mistress America (2015)

A lonely college freshman's life is turned upside-down by her impetuous, adventurous stepsister-to-be.

Director:

Noah Baumbach

Writers:

Noah Baumbach, Greta Gerwig

Stars:

Greta Gerwig, Lola Kirke, Shana Dowdeswell

2 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lola Kirke	...	Tracy
Shana Dowdeswell	...	Ruth
Shelby Rebecca Wong	...	Laura
Alfred Macadam	...	Professor #1
Amy Warren	...	Counselor
Sharon Washington	...	Professor #2
Morgan Lynch	...	Student
Andrea Chen	...	Hallway Girl
Shoba Narayan	...	Hallway Girl (as Shoba Narayanan)
Kathryn Erbe	...	Tracy's Mom
Jasmine Cephas Jones	...	Nicolette
Matthew Shear	...	Tony
Colin Stokes	...	Mobius Guy
Juliet Brett	...	Tiny Girl
Gretchen Young	...	Work Study Woman

Storyline

Tracy, a lonely college freshman in New York, is rescued from her solitude by her soon-to-be stepsister Brooke, an adventurous gal about town who entangles her in alluringly mad schemes. Mistress America is a comedy about dream-chasing, score-settling, makeshift families, and cat-stealing.

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Plot Keywords:

neo screwball comedy | f rated | female editor | betrayal | female protagonist | 

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Taglines:

from strangers to sisters.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language including some sexual references

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA Brazil

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 September 2015 (USA)

Also Known As:

Untitled Public School Project

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$234,275, 21 August 2015, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$2,461,121, 4 October 2015

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fox Searchlight Pictures,RT Features,TSG Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Noah Baumbach & Greta Gerwig compared the film to John Hughes' films.

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Goofs

When Brooke's former high school classmate Anna Wheeler approaches Brooke and Tracy in the bar, Anna mentions that she and her husband have recently seen the play Other Desert Cities, which began previews at the Booth Theatre on October 12, 2011 and closed on June 17, 2012. If the film occurs during Tracy's first semester of college and culminates with Thanksgiving dinner with Brooke at Veselka, then the film would occur in fall 2011. However, when the would-be stepsisters walk through Times Square, a marquee for the revival of Annie is visible. The most recent Broadway revival ran at the Palace Theatre from October 3, 2012 (first preview) to January 5, 2014.

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Quotes

Tracy: I went through a breakup too.

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Connections

References Dressed to Kill (1980)

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Soundtracks

All That She Wants
Written by Corey Gibson, Linn Berggren (as Malin Berggren), Ulf Ekberg, Justin Franks, Brittany Scriven, Joker, Jonas Berggren, Jenny Berggren
Performed by Ace of Base
Courtesy of Playground Music Scandanavia

User Reviews

Welcome to New York

I'm having a lot of trouble reviewing this film. On one hand, I really like all the actors, and even their performances, but I don't think this film really worked on all the levels it attempted to. Greta Gerwig is one of the top up and coming actresses working today, and i actually thought Lola Kirke did well in her first starring role. But the narrative never grabbed me like Noah Baumbach's other film Frances Ha did, also with Gerwig.

But the film is also not at all bad, in fact this may very well be the case of myself just not understanding what was intended with the script. It was just hard to buy into the premise when nothing is really set up at all. The film just pretty much jumps into the plot of Tracy and Brooke spending time together as they get to know each other before officially becoming step-sisters. Their relationship was interesting, but I didn't find it to be profound or anything like that. The latter half of the film takes place mainly in one area with close to 10 characters and it seemed to be way too dramatic and theatrical for a low budget story on a few relatively regular human beings.

It's unfortunate because the soundtrack and score are really quite good and seemed to fit for what they were going for at first, but the film just wasn't appealing enough for the score to really shine like it should have. I just feel like for a movie that is titled Mistress America, it should have been a more memorable outing. Sadly that's two Baumbach films this year that have been a bit of a letdown.

+Score/soundtrack

+Likable leads

-Why do I care about this story?

-Not much set up or payoff, to anything

5.5/10