Mistress America: Irony of Narrative Within a Narrative

Baumbach's 2015 film Mistress America is an enthralling (yet subtle) example of self-discovery, and is ironic in its consideration of a narrative revolving around narrative and the effects of story-writing. The film, which has been described as “knowingly erudite in a way that a certain bracket of American cinema is unashamed to be” (Jonathan Romney, “Mistress America review – a bracing, peppery tone”), follows the self-discovery of the two main characters, Tracy and Brooke (Lola Kirke and Greta Gerwig), through narrative style and character function. 

Tracy's story based on Brooke being read in Mistress America

It is almost uncanny how palpable the following quote from Corrigan and White is to the irony of narrative in Mistress America: "A visual narrative shows the appearance of characters more concretely than a literary one, while a literary narrative is able to present characters' thoughts more seamlessly than a visual narrative. A film narrative commonly draws from and combines these and other narrative traditions, and attending to how a particular film narrative might employ or emphasize the formulas or strategies of, say, oral narratives or operatic narratives illustrates the broad and complex history of storytelling embedded in cinematic form" (218). Mistress America makes for a brilliant narrative as it revolves around a young woman (Tracy) studying English who forms a relationship with her soon-to-be step-sister (Brooke) - the sort of flawed hero archetype that at first appears to be brilliant and unscathed but has many flaws and complexities. Tracy is inspired to write a story about Brooke as she is the sort of glowing character in a narrative that the protagonist aspires to be like, and faces the consequences of using her life as a narrative whilst the narrative of the film simultaneously unfolds. 

Each character in Mistress America serves a particular function in the narrative of the film. Brooke, the seemingly put-together New Yorker whom Tracy grows to idolise, is in reality searching for her own place in the world just as much as Tracy. The two characters develop during the narrative as they come to terms with aspects of themselves. As mentioned by Corrigan and White, "...film characters usually change over the course of a realist film and thus require us to evaluate and revise our understanding of them as they develop. In a conventional story, characters are often understood or measured by the degree to which they change and learn from their experiences. Both the changes and character's reaction to them determine much about the character and the narrative as a whole. We follow characters through this process of character development, the patterns through which characters move from on mental, physical, or social state to another in a particular film" (229-230). What is captivating about this film is its ability to serve the function of a conventional narrative through its character development progressing with the use of narrative as a thematic device. The above video is an example of how narrative is foreshadowed - Brooke talks of her friend who is "...one of those people who doesn't have any good ideas for her own life so she just steals all of mine" - which is indirectly what Tracy then goes on to do when she bases her short story around Brooke. 

Works Cited:

Corrigan, Tim and Patricia White. The Film Experience: An Introduction. Boston: St Martins, 2012. Print.

Jonathan Romney, "Mistress America review - a bracing, peppery tone", The Guardian. 16 August 2015. Web. Accessed on 14/04/16

Mistress America. Dir. Noah Baumbach. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2015. Film.