Noah Baumbach – We Are Movie Geeks

JAY KELLY – Review

With all the manic activity, preparations, shopping, and general “hub-bub” that fills the holiday season, most of us have precious little “downtime” to reflect. If you do get a “breather” you might pause to mull over your relationships with family and friends. And perhaps not all those memories are seen through “rose colored glasses”. Yup, regret can be an unexpected source for the end-of-the-year blues. This new film proclaims that those “pangs” can even affect the very-rich and famous. That includes iconic Hollywood “A-listers”, like the title character of this movie. And the “m-word” certainly applies to him because there are few movie stars that have been at the top of the box office longer than that “leading man” with the “matinée idol looks”, Mr. JAY KELLY.

Naturally, when we first meet Jay Kelly (George Clooney) he’s on a movie set, wrapping up his final scene. Right at his side is his devoted longtime manager Ron Sukenick (Adam Sandler), as they hear “Cut!”. Back at his lush estate, Jay meets with his youngest daughter Daisy (Grace Edwards), who’s preparing to join some school friends on a train trip through Europe. Jay tries to convince her to cancel and hang out with him between acting gigs. She declines just as Ron delivers a big bombshell: the director that gave Jay his “big break”, Peter Schnieder (Jim Broadbent), has died. Jay then recalls their last get together when he passed on Peter’s last film project. After attending the funeral, Jay runs into his old acting-school buddy, Tim (Billy Crudup), who suggests that the two get a drink at their old dive bar hangout. Things turn sour when Tim recalls how Jay got a role he had wanted, Their reunion ends in a fistfight on the sidewalk. The next day, Ron does damage control as Jay hits him with a bombshell. Rather than work on a new project with a hot directing duo, he’ll go to a Tuscany film festival that wants to honor him with a career award. But Jay doesn’t want another piece for his mantel. He makes a few clandestine calls, and finds out Daisy’s travel itinerary by following her BFF’s credit card trail. With Ron in tow, along with his long-time publicist Liz (Laura Dern), the “Kelly crew” flies to France where they board Daisy’s train. Along the way, Jay reconnects with the “common folk” while drifting in and out of memories before the big event in Italy, where he’ll encounter more folks from his troubled past.

So Clooney as a long-time, decades-spanning screen icon…not much of a stretch, sure. The guy has enough charm to spare, or at least for a couple more years. But here he peels back the sparkle to show the melancholy at Jay’s core. We see the sadness edging out that boyish twinkle in his eye as Clooney projects an unexpected vulnerability when Kelly realizes that time may not heal all wounds. His pairing with Sandler as the put-upon “wrangler” Ron is most inspired. Yes, Ron’s devoted to Jay, but Sandler shows us how the countless frustrations are boiling to the surface, ready to dour some hot steam into that suave mug. And he shows how his own family is losing the “tug-of-war” with Kelly. Dern’s great as another senior member of the “crew” who has his own regrets concerning her past with Ron. As Liz, Dern channels the staccato line delivery of those classic movie workin’ gals.The supporting cast is very impressive, including Patrick Wilson as another star in Ron’s “stable” (their Dinner “confab” is a highlight), Stacy Keach as the “rough around the edges” reminder of Jay’s boyhood, and Riley Keough as the elder Kelly daughter who is immune to papa’s “too late” attempts to reconnect. But the big standout may be the superb early-in-the-story turn by Crudup as the affable at first, old method acting buddy who suddenly bares his fangs on the startled “old pal”.

This is the latest work of one of the medium’s most interesting filmmakers, Noah Baumbach, who crafted the script with actress Emily Mortimer, who also plays Jay’s hairstylist Candy. This is a more grounded story than many of his more fanciful flicks like his WHITE NOISE, but not nearly as emotionally raw as MARRIAGE STORY. He gives us an interesting “insider’s view” of the industry, with riffs on several current stars and their scandals (now, who might those directing brothers be). Plus, Noah does dip his toe into fantasy with his unique flashback “transitions”. Suddenly, Jay will work through a day and be plunged into a major mistake from his past (he’s on his first movie set, he’s at a therapy session with one of his kids). We get some nice comic bits with the cute train passengers who adjust to the big star quickly. Oh, and that location works, especially in Tuscany, is quite dazzling. Though this can get a bit too fluffy and “navel-gazing”, the story does make its point concerning the consequences of putting your career first since in the non-soundstage world, we don’t get a second “take” to make things right. That’s a good lesson for moviegoers and movie stars like JAY KELLY.

3 out of 4

JAY KELLY is now steaming exclusively on Netflix

BARBIE The Movie Gets a Fun New Trailer

BARBIE THE MOVIE might be hitting theaters this summer, but today we have this first look at the new posters and second trailer for the film that’s sure to be a splash!

To live in Barbie Land is to be a perfect being in a perfect place. Unless you have a full-on existential crisis. Or you’re a Ken.

From Oscar-nominated writer/director Greta Gerwig (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”) comes “Barbie,” starring Oscar-nominees Margot Robbie (“Bombshell,” “I, Tonya”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land,” “Half Nelson”) as Barbie and Ken, alongside America Ferrera (“End of Watch,” the “How to Train Your Dragon” films), Kate McKinnon (“Bombshell,” “Yesterday”), Michael Cera (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Juno”), Ariana Greenblatt (“Avengers: Infinity War,” “65”), Issa Rae (“The Photograph,” “Insecure”), Rhea Perlman (“I’ll See You in My Dreams,” “Matilda”), and Will Ferrell (the “Anchorman” films, “Talladega Nights”). The film also stars Ana Cruz Kayne (“Little Women”), Emma Mackey (“Emily,” “Sex Education”), Hari Nef (“Assassination Nation,” “Transparent”), Alexandra Shipp (the “X-Men” films), Kingsley Ben-Adir (“One Night in Miami,” “Peaky Blinders”), Simu Liu (“Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”), Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”), Scott Evans (“Grace and Frankie”), Jamie Demetriou (“Cruella”), Connor Swindells (“Sex Education,” “Emma.”), Sharon Rooney (“Dumbo,” “Jerk”), Nicola Coughlan (“Bridgerton,” “Derry Girls”), Ritu Arya (“The Umbrella Academy”), Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Dua Lipa and Oscar-winner Helen Mirren (“The Queen”).

Gerwig directed “Barbie” from a screenplay by Gerwig & Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story,” “The Squid and the Whale”), based on Barbie by Mattel. The film’s producers are Oscar nominee David Heyman (“Marriage Story,” “Gravity”), Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, with Michael Sharp, Josey McNamara, Ynon Kreiz, Courtenay Valenti, Toby Emmerich and Cate Adams serving as executive producers.

Gerwig’s creative team behind the camera included Oscar-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”), six-time Oscar-nominated production designer Sarah Greenwood (“Beauty and the Beast,” “Anna Karenina”), editor Nick Houy (“Little Women,” “Lady Bird”), Oscar-winning costume designer Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women,” “Anna Karenina”), visual effects supervisor Glen Pratt (“Paddington 2,” “Beauty and the Beast”), music supervisor George Drakoulias (“White Noise,” “Marriage Story”) and Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat (“The Shape of Water,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel”).

Warner Bros. Pictures Presents a Heyday Films Production, a LuckyChap Entertainment Production, a Mattel Production, “Barbie.” The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures and released in theaters only nationwide on July 21, 2023 and beginning internationally on July 19, 2023.

WHITE NOISE – Review

*(L to R) Adam Driver as Jack, Greta Gerwig as Babette, and Don Cheadle as Murray in White Noise. Cr. Wilson Webb/Netflix © 2022*

Noah Baumbach, the director whose previous films include dramas like THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, offers audiences an absurdist comic fantasy with WHITE NOISE. In WHITE NOISE, a couple played by Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig live in a pleasant bubble of late 20th century clueless consumerism in a small idyllic-looking college town, until trouble comes to town.

Jack Gladney (Driver) is a college professor and his present and fourth wife Babette (Gerwig) is a stay-at-home mother raising their three children from previous marriages and a toddler of their own. It is the era of station wagons (the family vehicle fav before the minivan that had its peak in the ’70s), and the town is celebrating the parade of family station wagons bearing students like the return of swallows to Capistrano.

Jack’s best buddy Murray (a wonderfully funny Don Cheadle) is a fellow college professor at College on the Hill, where Murray lectures about the profound meaning of car crashes in movies, his area of academic study. Driver’s character’s equally weird field of study is “Hitler studies,” which seems to be Hitler trivia, although he is deeply embarrassed that he does not actually speak German. The family’s idyllic suburban life circles around what’s for dinner, little family kerfuffles, and modest ambitions for career advancement. At night, the couple share their deepest wishes in life, which for each, is to die before the other, because they can’t go on without the other.

The Gladney family goes about its quiet life, stressing over career advancement and a host of petty concerns, until a massive cloud of toxic gas threatens their leafy little town. Still they do nothing until the thing is right on top of them, which finally sends them scrambling.

Absurdism is at the forefront from the beginning in this ambitious film, which the director adapted from Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel. Baumbach’s script keeps the novel’s 3-part structure, although there are changes. WHITE NOISE provides some hilarious moments as well as a few insightful, even profound, ones on its journey, but ultimately, it does not completely come together as effectively as it might have.

This disaster movie chapter is followed by one that is more crime thriller. Along the way, the story deals with life, death, love and religion, sometimes in surprising, creative ways. Still, everything ends up at the supermarket, with a delightfully nutty sequence as the credits roll.

Adam Driver is the central character in this mad tale, but Greta Gerwig gets her moments too, as a parody of the classic ’80s movie wife. However, Don Cheadle, at his charismatic best, tends steal the scenes he is in. All the cast provide nice performances but this profoundly weird stuff.

Part of that weirdness is that the couple seems to live a fantasy time period, one of suburban serenity that is mostly the station-wagon loving, consumerism-heavy mid-1970s, although other story elements suggest it is the ’80s and other elements draw on the ’90s, in a kind of late 20th century stew.

The indeterminate time period actually works pretty well for the film. Greta Gerwig’s character sports the frizzy ’70s hair but wears loose rolled cuff pants of the ’90s. The family shops at the A&P grocery store, a vanished chain that was the original “supermarket” store featuring an array of goods and produce, where they are surrounded by old corporate brand names like Tide detergent and Frosted Flakes cereal in bright, candy-colored, neon-lit stores.

This absurdist satiric tour of late 20th century suburbia, and the mass market movies it spawned, touches on a number of real human concerns. While it does have its entertaining moments and even deeper moving ones, as a whole it does not really gel. In the end, maybe the title says it all – a noise that blocks out distractions from reality.

WHITE NOISE in now playing in select theaters and starts streaming on Netflix beginning Friday, December 30.

RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars

MARRIAGE STORY – Review

Ah, this film’s poster promises the adored end result of many a typical “rom-com’, or even a full-fledged “hearts and flowers” love story (with part of that in the title itself). There are two “A” list actors (each part of major “tentpole” franchises) happily nuzzling each other while an adorable child (perhaps the product of their screen coupling) seems to be giggling in the photo’s lower half. But looks, along with movie “ballyhoo” can be most deceiving. Especially with one of our most acclaimed “indie” writer/directors is given the big credit above the title. Just what is his “take” on the institution in this very modern MARRIAGE STORY?

Said story certainly begins on an uplifting note as we’re dropped right in the middle of two montages that deliver “warm fuzzies” that most greeting card commercials try to elicit. Nicole (Scarlett Johansson) narrates the snippets that support her remarks concerning the strengths of Charlie (Adam Driver) as husband and father, followed by his singing (well speaking) of her praises. And where is this “admiration society” meeting taking place? Well, it’s the office of a marriage “mediator”, because these two are separating. Nicole storms out, loudly proclaiming these lists are bull…um…nonsense. They try to go back to their jobs, which is tough since they work together. She’s part of an avant-guard off, off-Broadway theatre troupe and he’s the founder/director. Nicole makes it clear that after the production opens and is “on its feet” she plans to return to LA with their nine-year-old son Henry (Azhy Robertson). Her mother (Julie Hagerty) and sister (Merritt Wever) live out there so they can help with Henry while she tries to return to movies or TV (prior to NYC she starred in a hit teen comedy flick). At the suggestion of some new industry friends, Nicole talks to, and soon hires, high-profile family attorney Nora (Laura Dern) to work on the divorce and the custody agreement. When Charlie flies out for a visit, he’s blindsided by her news (“I thought we were leaving out the lawyers”). After a brutal meeting with legal “pit bull” Jay (Ray Liotta), Charlie finally finds a lawyer Nicole hadn’t contacted, a semi-retired entertainment attorney now family lawyer Bert Spitz (Alan Alda). As Charlie attempts to establish a California residence while flying back and forth to NYC (his new play may be headed uptown), he and Nicole realize that their marriage can’t be saved, but, for the sake of Henry, will they still be able to remain a family?

This is a film filled to the brim with superb performance, with Ms. Johansson delivering perhaps the best dramatic work of her twenty-plus years in movies. For about the last half of that time she has mainly bounced from “rom-com” heroine to SF/fantasy femme fatale (we’ll get to see her Marvel work one more time in this May’s Black Widow prequel), however she goes through the full range of emotions as the often conflicted, eventually determined Nicole. At first, she seems to be a cliche “flighty” actress, rejecting counseling, and discarding her family over career ambitions. Then there’s her riveting revealing confessional to her possible lawyer Nora. It’s a powerhouse one-take “no cuts” several-minute monologue in which she truly “bares all”, going from being an exposed “raw nerve” to focused “crusader”, liberated by finally giving voice to her frustrations and disappointments. We get another sample of her considerable skills much later as she goes “toe to toe” in another long dialogue (like a mini two-act play) with the equally talented Driver. His character Charlie changes as well, starting as the victim, a “good dad” “sucker-punched” until we see his often stubborn selfish nature as his artistic goals are nearly smothering his partner. Driver also puts a fresh spin on the “fish out of water” riffing on the East-Coaster aghast at the shallow trappings of “La La Land”. At times he’s a clueless lost traveler in a confusing tangle legal web. He’s pretty funny too, as he fails to predict his son’s impulses and especially when a sight gag goes terribly wrong. Also bringing the funny, Hagerty as Nicole ditzy mother (she doesn’t understand that she can’t remain pals with her kids’ exes), Wever as the jittery, flustered sister (she ‘s gotta’ serve “papers” to Charlie), and Wallace Shawn as the most senior member of Charlie’s acting troupe (look at the faces of his much younger costars as he repeats another story about his “glory days”). And of course, there’s comedy icon Alda whose mild-mannered Bert is almost eaten alive by the legal sharks led by the formidable Dern who is truly a barracuda in high heels, in one great scene she roars back at society’s double standards that shackle her gender. Equally fearsome on the flip side is Liotta whose Jay is pure macho swagger in a thousand-dollar tailored suit.

Noah Baumbach expertly brings his moving, unpredictable script to vivid life with no false steps or cardboard villains. Though they’re battling in the courtrooms, Nicole and Charlie still share moments of kindness and compassion, all for the best of reasons, namely the well-being of son Henry. Though they clash there’s still the underlying respect so that Henry never hears a “burn” from one parent about the other. There’s no flashy camerawork, though Baumbach knows just when to cut in for a telling look or glance. But his biggest strength is as a guide to the cast through the emotional minefield of a disintegrating relationship. Everything is real with no easy fixes or reconciliations. It’s the end of a romance, but the partnership begins to morph into something else. In that way, the tale of these two (three really) is actually hopefull. Though often unbearably raw, MARRIAGE STORY is an uplifting modern ode to a family’s resilience.

3.5 Out of 4

MARRIAGE STORY opens everywhere and screens exclusively in the St. Louis area at Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre

THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED) – The Review

THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED) is currently streaming on Netflix

Review by Stephen Tronicek

The first character that we’re introduced to in THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED), Noah Baumbach’s new best movie, ever is Danny (Adam Sandler) who feels like a pretty good representation of the film itself. As he drives around the streets of New York City, looking for a parking spot, his college-age daughter in tow, you see kindness in almost all of his actions. A need to please and connect with the young woman about to go off to college. And yet, every once in awhile, he snaps. Maybe it is the inability to actually find a parking spot, maybe it is the festering disconnect that he is having with his separated wife, maybe it is everything, but when push comes to shove Danny Meyerowitz screams f-words at drivers who can’t hear him when he doesn’t get his way.

How all of this ties into the thematic material of this incredible film is that each character is a microcosm of what the film is attempting. As the Meyerowitz’s come together, in a way that seems almost coincidental, and clash with each other about life, love, and family, the film itself keeps the audience from an arm’s length from the truth. For as much of the plot of the film is based in dialogue, none of the dialogue is very direct at all. Much like Baumbach’s other films, the characters here talk a lot, but they dance around the burning core of the film’s emotionality, never really spelling out what is wrong with them until a paramount moment that forces them too.

This makes for some really engaging drama in that the audience is constantly forced to decipher what anybody is actually saying, a balance that Baumbach has stricken before. What keeps all of it from becoming vapid is the both Baumbach’s direction and his editor seem perfectly matched. Part of the reason why the audience has to be engaged in the conversation is that Baumbach shoots his conversations in single shots and double shots, and cuts between them extremely quickly. This type of editing in effect is the film telling us that these people are talking over each other so quickly that even if they attempted to sit down and figure out what was actually wrong with all of them, they’d just end up putting each other down. The film developing the characters to a point of talking to each other is a great arc and the editing expertly evolves with this.

Baumbach’s talent of casting actors is honed to a fine point here, especially with the casting of Adam Sandler. Sandler has produced and starred in some truly horrendous works over the past few years, since his flagship turn in Punch Drunk Love, but he’s so good in The Meyerowitz Stories that you can’t help but identify the film as an interesting case study of his talents as an actor. Sandler is playing a Sandler character, an oafish man, seemingly beat down by life, that has a bit of a funny voice affectation, but every time he seems to get too close to what makes his other characters and films not work (i.e. not realizing that gross-out jokes, while not being necessary without merit do tend to exacerbate your tone and therefore your audience), he’s restrained back down to Earth, making this one of his best performances and also one of the best of the year. Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, and Emma Thompson all show up as other Meyerowitz players and while all three have been criminally underutilized in the past couple of years, each of them also provides some of the best performances of the year, especially Hoffman, who hasn’t been this good in a long time.

The Meyerowitz Stories is about a family developing into a functioning group, and in that way, it seems the perfect companion to Baumbach’s previous more nihilistic work (especially The Squid and the Whale). People come together and finally, after years of ignoring each other, find a way to get along. Much like the Sandler case, one can’t help but view the film by way of evolution in the artist’s oeuvre, a logical step towards optimism that is so joyous and comforting that you can’t help but feel good about life.

5 out of 5

Brian De Palma Focus Of A24’s DE PALMA Documentary

One of the most talented, influential, and iconoclastic filmmakers of all time, Brian De Palma’s career started in the 60s and has included such acclaimed and diverse films as CARRIE, DRESSED TO KILL, BLOW OUT, SCARFACE, THE UNTOUCHABLES, CARLITO’S WAY, and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. The director even delved into sci-fi with the 2000 adventure MISSION TO MARS, featuring a futuristic score from composer Ennio Morricone.

A24 has released a brand new poster for their upcoming movie on the filmmaker. Opening on June 10th, check out the trailer below.

In this lively, illuminating and unexpectedly moving documentary, directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow engage in a personal and candid discussion with De Palma, exploring not only his life and work but also his singular approach to the craft of filmmaking and his remarkable experiences navigating the film business, from his early days as the bad boy of New Hollywood to his more recent years as a respected veteran of the field.

In the end, what emerges is a funny, honest, and incisive portrait of a truly one-of-a-kind artist, and an exhilarating behind-the-scenes look at the last 50 years of the film industry through the eyes of someone who has truly seen it all.

MISTRESS AMERICA – The Review

With MISTRESS AMERICA, Noah Baumbach returns to embrace two of his recent muses: Greta Gerwig and New York City. This is his second indie darling of 2015 following WHILE WE’RE YOUNG from earlier this year. And while both films address ideas of ambition and ambivalence amongst the 20-30 something crowd, MISTRESS AMERICA may have more to say because it’s not saying it as loud or dramatically as the former film.

In a charming and vibrant turn, newcomer Lola Kirke plays college freshmen Tracy. She struggles for attention but doesn’t want friends nearly as much as she wants to be accepted into the school’s prestigious literary society. You know that they are a big deal because “they all carry around leather briefcases.” Her mother is about to get married and encourages Tracy to meet her soon to be step-sister Brooke (Greta Gerwig). Brooke is everywhere all at once. She has a million plates spinning at once and is constantly looking for more. Tracy is enamored with Brooke and becomes even more so as she hears about the new restaurant Brooke hopes to open in New York City with the help of her long-distant boyfriend. As you can expect, his investment comes to a screeching halt when the two of them break-up. Now Brooke is desperate for money and looks for help from an old friend with her plan. The only downside is that her old friend is now married to a woman who Brooke believes stole her million dollar t-shirt idea and her two cats many years ago. Through all of this, Tracy continues to gain inspiration from Brooke and sees her life as the subject for her short story.

Noah Baumbach’s penchant for embracing melodrama and sentimentality has never felt more at home than in this 1980’s tinged film. His films have consistently bordered on being too precious and often tread similar water – though reusing the same city and actress doesn’t help matters – but MISTRESS AMERICA seems like a director embracing a different tone than his previous films. Sure, it feels in many ways connected to 2013’s FRANCES HA with a dash of WHILE WE’RE YOUNG, but it also feels like Baumbach’s lightest film yet. And that’s not a negative thing. There’s a breezy manner to how the story floats along and much of this has to do with the John Hughes-esque vibe he imparts on the story.

The 1980’s inspired music, the opening title treatment, and certain visual touches (walking down the sidewalk and laughing during a music montage) give the film a self-aware but nostalgic feel in search of being a “simpler” film. Even though it fits thematically with the fact that Tracy is writing about Brooke, lending the film an occasional voiceover adds to the 80’s charm. Baumbach’s snappy dialogue and Gerwig’s “mumble-core” style both come out more or less in qual parts. It isn’t until the last half of the film where I felt Gerwig’s influence too much. What could have been a madcap extended scene turned into much, much more than that. Containing the last half of the film in one location is a daring risk that doesn’t quite payoff.

Brooke’s plan for her new restaurant is an obvious extension of her overarching character; a messy arrangement of ideas and chairs that are always shifting without a clear plan or specific goal. It’s all about the feeling it gives off. She’s all emotion and energy, which is why Tracy is instantly intrigued by her. Her kinetic spirit plays perfectly against Tracy’s more green and passive personality. Her kinetic character becomes food for fodder for Tracey and the audience. Brooke is that over the top character you would expect to see in a screwball stage play that you laugh at because she is so ridiculous – even though she’s completely unaware of the audience enjoying themselves at her expense. She’s similar to Alicia Silverstone’s character in CLUELESS but not as vapid. She speaks heartfelt thoughts without an inkling of what she’s actually saying. In bringing her to life, Gerwig walks a fine line between being detestable and endearing.

Considering that Noah Baumbach has released two films now in the same year, it would seem that he is following in the footsteps of his filmic muse’s character in MISTRESS AMERICA– running himself manic without really accomplishing anything at all. Thankfully that’s not the case. Noah Baumbach continues to find ways to excite the viewer and make them laugh, while examining the hysterical crisis that we call life.

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

MISTRESS AMERICA opens Friday, August 28 in St. Louis at the Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema and the Tivoli Theatre.

Win Passes To The Advance Screening Of MISTRESS AMERICA In St. Louis

In MISTRESS AMERICA, Tracy (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 (Greta Gerwig) – a resident of Times Square and adventurous gal about town – she is rescued from her disappointment and seduced by Brooke’s alluringly mad schemes.

MISTRESS AMERICA is directed by Noah Baumbach from a script written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig.

Opening in St. Louis on August 28, WAMG has your passes to catch the film early.

WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win a pass (Good for 2) to the advance screening of MISTRESS AMERICA on Monday, August 24th at 7PM in the St. Louis area.

We will contact the winners by email.

Answer the following:

Which of Noah Baumbach’s previous films received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay?

TO ENTER, ADD YOUR NAME, ANSWER AND EMAIL IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.

OFFICIAL RULES:

1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.

2. A pass does not guarantee a seat at a screening. Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. The theater is overbooked to assure a full house. The theater is not responsible for overbooking.

3. No purchase necessary.

Rated R for language including some sexual references.

Visit the film’s official site: http://www.mistressamericathemovie.com/

Lola Kirke And Greta Gerwig Star In The Uber Cute Trailer For Noah Baumbach’s MISTRESS AMERICA

Opening in select theaters on August 14, here’s a look at the second trailer for director Noah Baumbach’s MISTRESS AMERICA.

In MISTRESS AMERICA, Tracy (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 (Greta Gerwig) – a resident of Times Square and adventurous gal about town – she is rescued from her disappointment and seduced by Brooke’s alluringly mad schemes.

MISTRESS AMERICA is directed by Noah Baumbach from a script written by Baumbach and Greta Gerwig.

Gerwig says, “I’m a fan of the kind of ’80s movies in which some amazing girl drags “the square” into a crazy underground. They go on a big adventure and all this happenstance tumbles in. We wanted that feeling. I love the energy of those movies and I felt like I hadn’t seen one for a long time.”

“Movies like SOMETHING WILD, AFTER HOURS and DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN, in which the protagonist is taken on a wild ride by an alluring stranger, were an influence. These were movies I saw when I was a teenager and they had a big effect on me,” adds Baumbach.

According to producer Lila Yacoub, Baumbach has taken an increased interest in telling female stories in recent years, especially since the success of FRANCES HA. “Noah really loves women,” she says. “There’s usually a strong woman in his stories, which is one of the things that attracts me to his work. I’m thrilled that he’s writing characters like Tracy and Brooke. I completely respect him as a filmmaker and as a writer. I’m so proud to be part of this little family that we’ve created. He brings a unique perspective to filmmaking.”

MISTRESS AMERICA focuses squarely on the evolution of the friendship between two women, says Gerwig. “It is unusual to see a story about women that has nothing to do with their relationships with the men in their lives. That was a parameter we very deliberately set for ourselves.”

MISTRESS AMERICA opens in St. Louis on August 28.

Greta Gerwig And Lola Kirke Featured In MISTRESS AMERICA Poster And Trailer

Get a look at the first poster for director Noah Baumbach’s MISTRESS AMERICA.

The film screened in January at the Sundance Film Festival. In his review, Variety’s Scott Foundas wrote, “Greta Gerwig shines in a tailor-made role in her and Noah Baumbach’s spirited screwball follow-up to ‘Frances Ha.'”

In MISTRESS AMERICA, Tracy (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 (Greta Gerwig) – a resident of Times Square and adventurous gal about town – she is rescued from her disappointment and seduced by Brooke’s alluringly mad schemes.

Gerwig also stars in the upcoming MAGGIE’S PLAN, a romantic comedy of manners, which is written and directed by Rebecca Miller. She was last seen in FRANCES HA, a comedy she co-wrote with Noah Baumbach about an aspiring dancer who moves to New York City and becomes caught up in a whirlwind of flighty fair-weather friends, diminishing fortunes and career setbacks

MISTRESS AMERICA’s screenplay is from Baumbach and Gerwig.

Baumbach’s previous films include KICKING AND SCREAMING, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, GREENBERG, FRANCES HA, along with his latest WHILE WE’RE YOUNG. Read Tom Stockman’s glowing review HERE.

Watch Vanity Fair’s Sundance interview with the actresses HERE.

In select theaters August 14.

http://www.mistressamericathemovie.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MistressAmericaMovie

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