Review of Mistress America (2015) by Nickthecritick — 03 Nov 2021

Tracy Fishko, a college freshman, has moved to New York City and left behind a deceased father and a mother who is about to remarry. While she dreams of joining a prestigious literary circle and falling in love with the nerd next door, she meets Brooke, the half-sister that her mother advised her to contact to survive the metropolis. Kidnapped by Brooke's enthusiasm and dynamism, Tracy changes pace and pace, getting involved in the life of the young woman who dreams, among other things, of opening a 'family' restaurant in Williamsburg. If Brooke needs money to carry out her project, Tracy needs Brooke to write the story of life. Friend and talkative muse, she offers Baby Tracy the story to gain access to the club. But reality is sometimes difficult to grasp by placing an abyss of interpretations. Interpretations to which Brooke is irreducibly resistant.

How do life and fiction fit together? Can they be manipulated to make a film or write a story?

This film represents the ideal and very successful continuation of the previous "While We're Young". Well done, Baumbach.