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August 11, 2015

Scene and Heard: Noah Baumbach


Photo Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez

Photo Credit: Jon Pack

Editors' Notes

Director Noah Baumbach on the set of Mistress America.

Photo courtesy of Sundance

Editors' Notes

Actresses Lola Kirke and Greta Gerwig in Mistress America.

Photo courtesy of Sundance

Editors' Notes

Actor Matthew Shear and actress Lola Kirke in Mistress America.

Photo Credit: Sam Levy

Editors' Notes

Actresses Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke in Mistress America.

Photo Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez

Editors' Notes

Sundance Next Fest held at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel.

“When introducing a film, I always find that it’s good to talk as much as possible,” said director Noah Baumbach who arrived at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel in downtown L.A. on Friday, August 7, for a screening of Mistress America at Next Fest, a weekend of films and music curated by the Sundance Institute. It soon became clear that brevity really is the soul of wit for Baumbach as he followed his initial quip with a one-sentence introduction. “But anyway, you can watch the movie,” he said with a deadpan face. Mistress America, staring Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirke (Gone Girl), who were also on hand, is the story of two women living in New York who are finding their way in the city and in life. Kirke’s character is 18 and studying literature at Barnard, and Gerwig plays a creative-about-town teaching spinning and pushing 30. “We’re contemporaries,” Gerwig’s character insists. The pairing allows Baumbach to send up both academia and the self-taught hipster entrepreneur type who collects mismatched dishes and finally finds a use for them in a Williamsburg restaurant she’s trying to open. Such cliches serve as instant comedic fodder, and even suburban Connecticut gets its due. For a good laugh, do as Baumbach suggests. Watch the film.

By Elizabeth Varnell

 

Pictured: Director Noah Baumbach and actress Greta Gerwig at the Mistress America Los Angeles premiere held during Sundance Next Fest at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel.
Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez

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