"Do you ever get that feeling when you're driving, you never want to reach your destination, and you hope it never ends.
You must have had such a time, 'in your twenties, doing nothing, thinking you're a writer.' You read a lot, watch a lot of movies, and go to performances often. You try some marijuana, flirt with the opposite sex, and do anything related to being unconventional, you want to try it. You secretly prepare to write your first short story.
Just like Tracy in the movies, nineteen years old, going to New York City alone for college, taking various literature courses, being isolated by classmates, but luckily making friends with a like-minded male classmate from Columbia. While exchanging works, they also exchanged some ambiguous glances. Both of you aspire to join the Möbius Literary Society, and both get rejected, but at least you can go for a ride in his car. Yes, you two are a good match. But the good times don't last long; he soon gets a girlfriend, and it's not you. He envies your talent but doesn't dare to reach out. It must be like that.
So, you feel upset, not heartbroken, but tears of youth are always too cheap. You need a place to vent, not wanting to shed tears alone. So, you think of her: Brooke, a thirty-year-old woman you've never met. She's about to become your sister because your mom is marrying her dad. So, you call her, and no one answers. She quickly gets back: 'Do you know where Times Square is?' Brooke's voice sounds so lively.
This is another movie about New York and the emotional experiences of a young girl, making people inevitably think of director Noah Baumbach's collaboration with Greta Gerwig in the previous work, "Frances Ha." The film bears a clear New Wave imprint and has achieved unprecedented success worldwide, earning a spot in the top ten of the "Cahiers du Cinéma" that year. With Greta's precise grasp of the life status of young people and Baumbach's deep understanding of New York, coupled with the screenplay written in close collaboration between the two, this filmmaking couple is becoming a dazzling couple of the New York film scene in recent years.
Their contributions are hard to distinguish. Before they met, Baumbach had gained some fame with "The Squid and the Whale" and had directed several independent films in Los Angeles. Greta had starred in a large number of low-budget independent films and was a goddess of the "mumblecore" movement in American independent cinema. Their first collaboration was "Greenberg," where Baumbach's old friend Ben Stiller played a neurotic middle-aged single man, and Greta played the supporting role of a family tutor. "Greenberg" is not a successful work, just like Greenberg's life. After that, Baumbach divorced his Hollywood actress wife ("The Hateful Eight" female lead) and moved back to his birthplace, New York, forming a couple and collaborating with Greta.
The age difference between the two is more than ten years, creating an amazing chemical reaction. "Frances Ha" was different from Baumbach's previous works. It was his first time shooting in black and white in New York, the first time using a woman as the film's protagonist, and his first time returning to New York to shoot after moving to the West Coast in 2005.
Noah Baumbach is an excellent screenwriter. He is friends with Wes Anderson, and the two have collaborated on many works, serving as producers for each other. He has also written scripts for various commercial films, such as the animated film "Madagascar." He excels in various screenwriting and directing skills, while Greta is good at capturing clever details from life. Together, they contribute one excellent work after another.
Different from the portrayal of best friends in "Frances Ha," this film tells a small story between thirty-year-old Brooke and nineteen-year-old Tracy, who become sisters due to their parents' decision to marry. This kind of story about communication between different generations is easier to remind people of Baumbach's previous film "While We're Young"—how does a director in his forties deal with a failing career and the threat of a young director? "While We're Young" is still starring Ben Stiller and is a thoroughly "Baumbach" work. After several years of precipitation, it is less manic than "Greenberg" and more calm and calm in the face of failure. Make it clear. Anything related to men, youth growth, and midlife crises comes from Baumbach's insights, while those related to women, the new generation, and the carefree ones are Gerwig's creativity. This is the best duo of Baumbach-Gerwig.
Back to the movie. The pair of Tracy and Brooke, who became sisters due to their parents' marriage, unexpectedly hit it off after meeting. Brooke exudes the style of a big sister and likes to have a little follower by her side to listen to her talk and accompany her to bars. Tracy, while interested in entering Brooke's world, secretly observes her every move to prepare for writing a new short story. The name is decided—call it "American Hostess" because Brooke wants to open an open restaurant, similar to a salon, and she is the hostess of the salon.
"'The restaurant is doomed... Brooke smells like a corpse." Like other precocious girls in the world, Tracy possesses sharp eyes and a venomous pen. She knows that Brooke's restaurant is doomed to fail, but she encourages Brooke to persist, even pulling in the ambiguous male student from Columbia University and the student's vinegar jar girlfriend. For the new plot of the short story, she must push Brooke to seek sponsorship from her ex-boyfriend until it leads to a complete failure.
People who write novels have a kind of god-like arrogance because they have full control over the characters in their pens and hold absolute power. The writing of beginners often blurs the line between the novelist and the characters in life, forgetting that they are drawing materials from life and cannot interfere with the fate of the novel's prototype for the sake of the novel. Tracy starts to influence Brooke's life to meet her novel's expectations. The same arrogance is also reflected in her attitude towards the Columbia male student. Although she only has a liking for him, she deliberately flirts with him because she subconsciously treats him as the protagonist in another novel. When doing these things, it's as if you can see Tracy's novelist's personality laughing proudly.
Tracy's childish tricks are quickly exposed. The fact that she wrote Brooke into the novel and the shattered, sarcastic, and immature words in the novel are recited in public. It's like being stripped naked and publicly slapped. Everyone in the room stands on the opposite side of her. Her dignity is completely humiliated, and Brooke announces on the spot that she and Tracy are breaking up.
Their parents make the decision not to get married, so they don't have to be sisters anymore.
Without experiencing a few melodramatic breakups, you cannot grow up happily. Tracy, under twenty, aspires to be a writer, thinking she can play with life but ends up being harshly taught by life. In reality, the story ends here; don't fantasize about a bright ending. Your novel is still rejected, and your novel prototype is now on a separate path. Put away your god-like arrogance; don't attempt to force life. Life will never give you a warm and tender embrace in return.
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