Mistress America

Dysfunctional based comedies come in all different forms, whether they be wacky, conventional or powder dry in nature. All can be well crafted assuming that the writer or writers are proficient in what they do. I can certainly enjoy any comedy, however when the comedy is poorly written, it is a very difficult thing to watch without cringing. Powder dry comedies come in all sorts of ways, i.e. "Greenberg", "Being There", "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty"-the newer version, and the most recent, "While We're Young" to name a handful. Now we have in the offing "Mistress America".

In this story, Tracy Fishko (Lola Kirke) is a lonely college freshman 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 Cardinas (Greta Gerwig)--a resident of Time Square and adventurous gal about town who happens to be totally self-absorbed; nice but self-centered, Tracy is then rescued from disappointment and seduced by Brooke's alluringly mad schemes including dream-chasing, score-settling, makeshift families, and cat-stealing.

Others to round out the cast are Charlie Gillette as Carey, Heather Lind as Maime-Claire, Matthew Shear as Tony, Michael Chernus as Dylan, Jasmine Cephas-Jones as Nicolette, Cindy Cheung as Karen, Kathryn Erbe as Tracy's mom, Dean Wareham as Harold, Clare Foley as Peggy, Shana Dowdeswell as Ruth and Shelby Rebecca Wong as Laura.

This was quirkily and dryly directed by Noah Baumbach ("Kicking and Screaming" '95, "Mr. Jealousy" '97, "Highball" '97, "The Squid and the Whale" '05, "Margot at the Wedding" '07, "Greenberg" '10, "Frances Ha" '12, "While We're Young" '14). The eclectic ensemble casts he uses so often is well played out in that their approach with each other is somewhat intentional and extremely dry which works with his screenplays. It was written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. As I've mentioned in other reviews, I'm not in love with the style in which Baumbach writes, but he is a very talented writer, which is tough to find in Hollywood today. It seems to look like he has very little direction in his stories, but considering the extreme dryness of the storyline, it comes across that way, but isn't necessarily intentional. His characters are droll and almost depressing that one might think that they're watching a drama instead of a comedy. Gerwig has worked with Baumbach before and it's like a kindred spirit sort of relationship. They both have impressive resumes, but somehow, I felt this wasn't one of his best efforts--it moved slow, and considering its 86 minute running time, this should have moved fast.

With all objectivity, while these two writers are very talented in their own right, I felt that this just needed a bit more polish. Certainly Gerwig as Brooke was a sight to behold--her self- absorbed character was was well played out as was the ensemble cast, but at the end of the day, it just needed more.

Out of 4 Stars: 2.5                                 Rated: R                                    86mins.