MovieChat Forums > Mistress America (2015) Discussion > One of the worst films of 2015

One of the worst films of 2015


What a major disappointment. This movie felt like an episode of Girls (minus the nudity) meets a crappy Kevin Smith film. And the Kevin Smith comp is in reference to how awful the acting and dialogue were.

Baumbach did the impossible. He made the smokin hot, drop dead gorgeous Lola Kirke ( Gone Girl) look unattractive and frumpy.

The performances were terrible across the board. None of the characters came off as a real person, instead they looked like over the top caricatures in a student film, all waiting to recite their lines instead of listening, and letting the timing of their banter come naturally.

The only positive i found in the film was the music which was very good.


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Agree 100%

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Most accurate review of a movie I've read in a very long time. You took the words out of my mouth.

During the scene at the Connecticut house it seemed like I was watching a live theatre performance. No one has conversations like that.

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The "ensemble" dialogue sequences definitely had the feel of a live play. I think because those were single shots requiring the actors to create the rhythm, like they would on stage.

So much of the film is cut line-by-line between actors (sorry, I don't know the technical film term for this)it has the effect of turning pages in a comic book.

I think it would've been more interesting as either of the above.

The point of putting this on film escapes me.


*Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance*

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I totally agree about the CT house scenes. Felt very much like watching a live theater performance and seemed that it was intentionally shot that way. Especially how they added the neighbor and pregnant lady to the mix. Totally fine with it and thought how great this would be as a play with all of the witty dialogue. Sorry to disagree with your assessment. I think it is one of the better films of the year. Very enjoyable.



www.selmablairstyle.com For All Things Selma Blair

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I don't want to make undue assumptions, but it sounds like none of you are very familiar with classic Hollywood cinema, or screwball comedy, which Baumbach is drawing from very explicitly here. Theater is in fact an antecedent of film, as you probably know, and older movies were often acted and staged like filmed plays. It's quite clear Mistress America is taking cues from that era - the dialogue is extremely witty but is written and performed to sound at least somewhat theatrical, an element Baumbach uses self-reflexively to comment on how his characters are, often quite literally, performing social roles.

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At last, somebody who understands what the film was trying to do.



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'but it sounds like none of you are very familiar with classic Hollywood cinema, or screwball comedy, which Baumbach is drawing from very explicitly here.'

To tell the truth, neither was Baumbach.


It's that man again!!

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Not sure about one of the worst, buy way overrated. Like Frances Ha, it had no point. I kept thinking to myself, what a bunch of losers this younger generation is if this is what they sit around and bitch about life. First world problems indeed.

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Of course Frances Ha (like Mistress America) has a point, quite a few in fact. But you are not spoonfed the point like you are an infant.

In Frances Ha, you are shown two women: Sophie seems responsible and has made the right decisions in her life. She has a worthwhile and meaningful job, decides to live in the coolest neighborhood in Manhattan, and she has a steady and successful boyfriend she has committed to and grown to love. She is the adult of the couple.

Frances, on the other hand, is an object of derision. She makes ridiculous choices, culminating in the nonsensical rush off for a weekend in Paris that she can ill afford and can't possibly enjoy. Even the dimmest member of the audience at this point is rolling their eyes at Frances.

But all of her bad decisions don't really amount to much. Not really. None of them afffect her life forever. Meanwhile, Sophie quits her great job, abandons coldly her dear friend just to live someplce 'cooler', goes off to Tokyo where she doesn't want to live, and marries someone who means far less to her than her friend for the sake of convenience.

Baumbach sets the audience up for expectations based on their prejudices. That's the essence of Frances Ha. No matter how open minded you are, it so easy to get trapped by doing the 'right' thing that you lose sight of the true thing.

In Mistress America, which I don't like as much, you are given a character that looks like she is fooling herself. This could be said of a generation. But in reality she is not even doing that. She knows the score more than anyone. And that makes Mistress America (and many others) sad, despite the lightness of the Nouvelle Vague approach. We are not even fooling ourselves.

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It sure beats Fantastic Four or Mad Max, however.

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[deleted]

they looked like over the top caricatures in a student film



The trailer very much resembled every student film that I was ever forced to watch.
And people are saying that it was a deliberate style.... k.
The style has a sort of nostalgic charm in a way that it reminds me of being young and in film school again.... I guess.




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Got it!

NOW, I understand the close up of the apple bong!

I can die happy!

*Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance*

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I agree 0%.

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Why does it matter what Lola Kirke looked like?

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The only positive i found in the film was the music which was very good.



agreed, the music was pretty awesome but overall I din't like the movie that much and found the non-stop dialogue really tiresome.






Libera te tu temet ex inferis.
pro ego sum diabolus, pro ego sum nex.

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