On today’s episode of our podcast, we’re bringing you a fascinating live conversation with Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach about their new film, Mistress America, which is now playing in select theaters. Subscribe to The Close-Up on iTunes, and, if you like what you hear, leave us a review!

Mistress America has been garnering rave reviews since it premiered at Sundance last January with critics praising, above all, its display of Gerwig’s comedic talents. In a recent column for Film Comment, Michael Sragow said: “As a performer, Gerwig is an original; she can play the swan, the ugly duckling, and sometimes both at once.”

This discussion comes from a Q&A following our recent sneak preview of the film, which was moderated by Kent Jones, Director of the New York Film Festival. In it, Gerwig and Baumbach talk about how they came to the character of Brooke, why they decided to pluck her from a different screenplay and build an entire film around her, and how she differs from Frances, Gerwig’s character from their previous film together, Frances Ha.