Saw "Mistress America" over the weekend, the latest from my favorite "current" filmmaker, Noah Baumbach. It's about a free-spirited 30-year-old woman in New York City who (sort of) takes her about-to-be stepsister (Brooke's mom is marrying Tracy's dad) -- who's just started college and is having a hard time adjusting -- under her wing, The setup and both lead characters (played by Greta Gerwig and newcomer Lola Kirke) are interesting enough, yet somehow the whole wasn't greater than the sum of the parts for me. Despite nice performances by the two young women, several of the secondary characters were borderline ridiculous -- almost caracicatures -- and some of the plot twists so completely over-the-top that it wasn't quite believable, yet the film wasn't compelling or funny enough for me to look the other way. This is Baumbach's second writing collaboration with Gerwig, with whom he took up as his marriage to Jennifer Jason Leigh unraveled, around the time he directed the ingenue in the love-ir-or-hate-it "Greenberg" in 2010. "Mistress America" is entertaining enough. But if you're not a Baumbach purist, I would suggest the couple's previous joint writing effort, 2012's "Frances Ha," which examined another female-female relationship to much greater effect.
Gerwig did a Q&A at Lincoln Plaza afterward. She didn't really reveal anything too interesting, but she's every bit as adorable as she is onscreen.
