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'Mistress' a glimpse into a crazy world of affection, animosity

<h3 class="briefHead">Mini-review: 'Mistress America'</h3>

The charm of Noah Baumbach's new comic drama "Mistress America" lies in its blissfully erratic tempo, its spontaneously fresh, machine-gun dialogue and seemingly random events all converging in a merry mashup of vintage Hollywood farce and terse social satire.

Cowritten and coproduced by star Greta Gerwig, "Mistress America" invites us into the whirlwind life of wannabe writer Tracy (Lola Kirke), a freshman Manhattan college student roundly rejected by her school's snooty literary society. She cushions her disappointment by calling up Brooke (Gerwig), her New York will-be stepsister once her mother marries Brooke's dad.

Brooke turns out to be something of a hipster Auntie Mame, a verbal volcano erupting with ideas and inspirational thoughts while whisking the awe-struck Tracy through a dizzying survey of Times Square parties and hidden-away hot spots.

Brooke seems to know everything and everybody. More impressive, everyone knows her.

The eventual plot emerges when Brooke must come up with $75,000 by Monday morning or she will lose the ideal location for Mom's, her proposed restaurant pitched to cool people like herself and Tracy.

Fascinated by Brooke, Tracy begins clandestinely writing a bluntly observed story based on her and their experiences. (Plotwise, you know this will come back to bite her some place really bad.)

True, Tracy doesn't evolve much beyond the writerly observer she is at the start, but she bears witness to a crazy world filled with women possessed of strong personalities and excessive animosities toward each other. (Jasmine Cephas-Jones' Nicolette suspects Tracy wants to steal her lover. Heather Lind's Mamie-Claire hates Brooke, period.)

"Mistress America" is the kind of verbally driven comedy that skates along with alacrity and affection for its characters, even the snippy ones. After all, they're the most quotable.

"There's nothing I don't know about myself," Brooke tells Tracy. "That's why I can't do therapy!"

<b>"Mistress America" opens at the Century Centre Cinema and River East 21 in Chicago, plus the Evanston Century 18. Opens wider on Aug. 28. Rated R for language. 86 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ½</b>

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