Can lightning strike twice for Noah Baumbauch and Greta Gerwig? The two hit a sweet spot with 2013’s Frances Ha, garnering quite a bit of praise and even claiming the fourth spot on our list of the decade’s best films (so far), so expectations are high for their second collaboration, Mistress America. In it, Gerwig plays Brooke, an adventurous woman floating from one artistic endeavor to the next who takes her young, future stepsister (Lola Kirke) under her wing. A.A. Dowd caught the film at Sundance and praised Kirke’s performance and Baumbauch and Gerwig’s winning spirit. Mistress America opens in Chicago on August 21, but The A.V. Club and Fox Searchlight have an opportunity for you to catch it for free on August 17. For your chance to win a pair of passes to the advance screening, simply follow the link here and enter the code MISSA. As always, seats will be first come, first served, so be sure to arrive early. An official plot synopsis and trailer for the film can be found below.
“In Mistress America, Tracy (Lola Kirke) is a lonely college freshman in New York, having neither the exciting university experience nor the glamorous metropolitan lifestyle she envisioned. But when she is taken in by her soon-to-be stepsister, Brooke (Greta Gerwig)—a resident of Times Square and adventurous gal about town—she is rescued from her disappointment and seduced by Brooke’s alluringly mad schemes.”