Prolific writer/director Noah Baumbach’s newest film, the Manhattan-set screwball comedy Mistress America, has been given a U.S. release date of August 14, 2015. The film, featuring Baumbach’s muse Greta Gerwig (she headlined and co-wrote Frances Ha for Baumbach previously, a role that earned the actress a Golden Globe Award nomination), made its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival where it earned warm reviews. Fox Searchlight picked up the title ahead of its Sundance bow and angling for the movie as a late summer bit of counter-programming ahead of the arrival of the awards season madness.
The film stars newcomer Lola Kirke (Gone Girl and real-life sister of Girls co-star Jemima Kirke) as Tracy, a lonely college freshman living in New York who is living a quiet existence, a long way off from the glamorous, adventurous one she envisioned for herself. Tracy’s world is turned sideways when she’s taken in by soon-to-be stepsister Brooke (Gerwig), a sophisticated Times Square resident and woman about town with a penchant for mad-cap schemes. Scott Foundas wrote in his favorable Variety review that Mistress America, “Bristles with kinetic energy for the brief 84 minutes it’s onscreen.” Michael Chernus (Captain Phillips) and Joel Marsh Garland (True Story) co-star. Baumbach not only directed but wrote the screenplay.
Baumbach most recently impressed critics with the spring hit While We’re Young, another Manhattan-set comedy of manners which starred Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried. The quite busy filmmaker premiered that title at 2014 Toronto Film Festival and is currently his second highest grossing film. His highest grosser remains his 2005 breakout film The Squid and the Whale, a comedy-drama that starred Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney as squabbling divorcees. That film earned Baumbach an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Other films Baumbach has directed include 2013’s critically acclaimed Frances Ha, 2010’s Greenberg (which provided a breakout role for Gerwig), and the 2007’s Nicole Kidman-headlined Margot at the Wedding.
Mistress America is set for release on August 14th, likely starting out limited at first.
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