Mistress America

I'm walking down the stairs of the picture house, trying to keep my Birkenstocks from falling off of my feet but simultaneously slapping them against every step. This causes the couple next to me stop debating whether they actually enjoyed Noah Baumbach's Mistress America or not. The aged woman behind me could only claim that it 'had a few good one-liners'. That's such a mum thing to say, right? The film had some good one-liners. And it did, buckets and buckets of them, mostly spoken by a dreamy teenage writer in New York called Tracy (played by Lola Kirke), the kind of teenager I like to think I could have been if I hadn't been born in Essex, had liked gin and had invested in a beret.

I knew I was going to like this film from the go. After falling madly in lust with Frances Ha and watching it at least one lazy Sunday afternoon a month, I knew anything Greta Gerwig related was right up my street. Maybe I'm the culture junkie and alternative wannabe they're simultaneously mocking and living through, maybe I'm not. As predicted, I loved it. It was exactly the cosy, awkward yet chic Sunday afternoon Greta Gerwig film I had hoped for; warm colouring, indie soundtrack, bootcut jeans and female friendships galore!

Gerwig's character, Brooke, is what I both love and hate about the film. In an instance I'm Tracy; rendering Brooke an iconic New York funny-woman and admiring her wholly. I love her. Then I see little parts of myself played out across the screen. That relentless optimism of 'things will always work out' that I've come to rely on. The flakiness of a character too scatty to follow through with any of her ideas. (If I had a pound for every time I told someone I was writing a novel, I'd have, at least, a fiver by now...) I hate her.

Like the debating couple on the stairs said, before they became distracted by my obnoxious sandals - it's impossible to tell whether you loved her or not. The audience is left exactly in Tracy's eyes; in love, in disgust and then in admiration once more. Like Brooke, Mistress America is a difficult one to pin down. It's overall charm and familiarity feels like going for drinks with an old friend. Even if that friend is arrogant or egotistical or too big of a dreamer, it's still impossible to dislike them. It is impossible to dislike Mistress America. Watch the trailer below!