MovieChat Forums > Mistress America (2015) Discussion > America personified?

America personified?

posted 9 years ago by hehassanein
3 replies | jump to latest

Hello! As a word of introduction I'm new to the imdb community but not to imdb itself at all. It's been years since I've watched a movie and haven't rushed to these boards straight after to see what themes and plot points I've missed or if other people share the same ideas as I do. I just watched Mistress America a few days ago and couldn't find anyone that shared this particular theory so I've finally grown some balls and made my own topic to bring it up myself.

While watching this movie I really felt like Brooke was Mistress America herself- not the superhero she thought up but America as a woman.
It made so much sense at the time, because just like American popular culture she was all over the place. Full of bravado, not focused on one serious outlet but a dozen at once and certain everything she does will be the Next Big Thing...Right down to the more negative aspects of pop culture like how vapid she could be, distracted by her constantly changing train of thoughts, her obsession with herself and her self-marketing.
I don't want to use the term 'chasing the American Dream' because I think she is the American Dream itself, with all the good and bad in it. And like the elusive American Dream she never really achieves anything- we never see any of her big, ground-breaking ideas getting anywhere near execution- but like the American Dream the whole point of the movie wasn't watching her succeed but watching her in the pursuit of that dream. She is constant pursuit; when one dream dies out she packs her bags and moves on to another. The film ends with her just about to move, she is left perpetually one leg out of NYC, the next out in the West.

Ultimately imo that's the most important aspect of her character- that she never really gets anything concrete, 100% done and is always on the move. She's Tracy's foil because Tracy starts the movie mesmerized by this woman and yet almost seeing through her, and ends it having reached her own dreams, decided they weren't good enough for her and starting on a new one. Tracy is more of a 'real' person for that- she has a muse to inspire her and she has achievements. Brooke has neither. Brooke is a dream and Tracy is the reality that Brooke needs to achieve balance.

Please let me know what you think!

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 9 years ago

I think your explanation is the best one for this movie I've read so far.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] vanillainflux 9 years ago

you're not wrong. glad you appreciated it - this movie did not really do it for me personally; the acting wasn't strong strong, the character not well written enough for me to enjoy the fact that this movie is quite negative and cynical (read realistic) ..

it's a dirty world Reich, say what you want

[–] jm10701 9 years ago

That's a very interesting suggestion, lots more intelligent and creative than 99% of what gets posted on these message boards (or anywhere else online). I hope you'll keep sharing your ideas.

My first reaction when I read

And like the elusive American Dream she never really achieves anything- we never see any of her big, ground-breaking ideas getting anywhere near execution- but like the American Dream the whole point of the movie wasn't watching her succeed but watching her in the pursuit of that dream.

was that if the American Dream never really achieved anything America would be a third-world country and we wouldn't even be writing about it. The percentage of successful dreamers of that dream may be small, but the thousands who do achieve something compensate for the millions who don't. The net result is a surprisingly successful country, considering how fundamentally chaotic the society is.

So my suggestion is that Brooke personifies only that scatterbrained, chaotic aspect of American culture. Tracy may represent the (admittedly smaller) side of America that learns from its mistakes and actually does accomplish a very great deal. So maybe Brooke and Tracy together are a more complete representation of America as a whole. Actually, that's pretty much what you said:

Brooke is a dream and Tracy is the reality that Brooke needs to achieve balance.