The films of director Noah Baumbach are an acquired taste. The acting of Greta Gerwig is an acquired taste. Collaboratively, their latest film, “Mistress America,” which they co-wrote, is really an acquired taste.

Brooke (Gerwig) is a Manhattan resident who befriends Tracy (Lola Kirke), a younger woman who accompanies her on a road trip to visit Dylan (Michael Chernus), an ex-boyfriend who is independently wealthy and living with his wife, Mamie-Claire (Heather Lind), a former friend, in a fabulous modern home in Greenwich, Conn. Tony (Matthew Shear) and Nicolette (Jasmine Cephas Jones) tag along for the rude.

The scene where Brooke pitches her Manhattan restaurant project, is the lynch pin of the comedy-drama, which Movie Maven Mike, Michael Gontkosky, who accompanied me to the film screening, pointed out has more of the sense of a stage play.

“Mistress America” provides an amusing insight into the Millennial generation (Tracy), as seen from a Generation X perspective (Brooke). Give credit to Baumbach, as well as Gerwig, the center of the story, to keep the movie-goer involved. In typical Baumbach fashion, watching his abrasive, shallow and unpleasant characters, hearing their self-involved, excuse-ridden and acerbic dialogue and watching their downfall, is akin to rubber-necking at a traffic accident.

Gerwig, with whom Baumbach has been in a relationship since 2011, is a fascinating screen presence. She is so real, so raw, so committed in performance that one can’t always tell where the acting leaves off and the real person emerges. She imbues her character with the kind of irrational exuberance usually found in a Wall Street bull market.

“Mistress America” often seems like a Woody Allen film, down to the plot device of a fortune teller, and is similar in its college setting to Allen’s “Irrational Man” (2015). It’s “The Breakfast Club” (1985) for Millennialists, where the main characters, while not in high school detention exist in a kind of prison without walls of existential angst. In this, Kirke (TV’s “Mozart In The Jungle,” 2014- ) is the Molly Ringwald character). It’s TV’s “Friends” without the friends. It’s “Seinfeld” without the slap bass. The story and characters are akin to “The Great Gatsby” (1925), where the lights of Manhattan substitute for that green light on the far-off, never-attained shore on the other side of the bay.

Baumbach’s films (“While We’re Young,” 2014; “Frances Ha,” 2012; “Greenburg,” 2010; “Margot At The Wedding,” 2007; “The Squid And The Whale,” 2005; “Mr. Jealousy,” 1997; “Kicking And Screaming,” 1995) bear viewing. His films aren’t easy. They are interesting.

Note: There’s a particular insensitive piece of dialogue: “I thought I might actually go to college. I’m not an amputee,” says Brooke (Gerwig).

Welcome to the world of the young and the depressing: “Mistress America.” No contest.

“Mistress America,” MPAA rated R (Restricted. Children Under 17 Require Accompanying Parent or Adult Guardian) for language including some sexual references; Genre: Comedy; Run time: 1 hr., 24 min.; Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Credit Readers Anonymous: The “Mistress America” soundtrack includes a bevy of 1980s pop songs.

Unreel, Sept. 18:

“Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials,” PG-13: The Gladers hit the road and new challenges. Dylan O’Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster and Nathalie Emmanuel are back in the science-fiction adventure.

“Black Mass,” R: The biopic about Whitey Bulger, a South Boston crime lord who becomes an FBI informant stars Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dakota Johnson and Joel Edgerton.

“Pawn Sacrifice,” PG-13: United States’ chess champion Bobby Fischer’s chess match with Russia’s Boris Spassky is chronicled. Edward Zwick directs Liev Schreiber, Lily Rabe, Tobey Maguire and Peter Sarsgaard in the biopic.

“Everest,” PG-13: A climbing expedition on Mt. Everest confronts a snow storm. Jake Gyllenhaal, Elizabeth Debicki, Keira Knightley and Robin Wright star in the adventure-drama.

“Sicario,” R: An FBI agent helps in the war against drugs on the U.S.-Mexico border. Emily Blunt, Jon Bernthal, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro star in the crime drama.

Two Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes