Damsels in Distress

Quirky but loveable
This is the long-awaited return of writer-director Whit Stillman, who we last saw with the delicious 1998's "Last Days of Disco" movie.

"Damsels in Distress" (98 min.) brings the story set at a fictional Northeast university in which a group of young women, namely Violet (played by Greta Gerwig), Rose (played by Megalyn Echikunwoke) and Heather (played by Carrie MacLemore) take a transfer student Lily (played by Analeigh Tipton) under their wings. The group is determined to bring a better life to students, running the Suicide Center (which they rename the Suice Prevention Center). Of course that is not counting for the guy troubles that may, and will, occur. One of those is a fellow named Xavier. There is a hilarious scene in which Lily tries to explain that Xavier is spelled with an X, when one of the other girls say that it is surely it is spelled with a Z, as in "Zorro", at which point Violet surmises that the letters X and Z are pronouned the same when not ending in a...

Another Great One from Whit Stillman
After reading reviews I thought this film would be much different than his others but now that I have seen it I think it was quite similar. It is critical, smart, interesting, and funny. Some of the dialogue is absolutely hilarious. Whit Stillman is the only filmmaker I know of that writes pretty realistic yet comic films about the elite. It is fascinating to me to see how these people think. This film, even more than his others, shows how sad and pathetic the people that run the world really are. Sure they are oppressing just about everyone on earth and their actions cause untold devastation and suffering yet they believe they are doing the right thing "God's Work". This is a scathing yet sympathetic critique of the American aristocracy. One would think this would be impossible but here it is. He really has matured as a filmmaker. This is his most complex and nuanced work yet. Also, as with most cutting edge art, this film will likely require repeated exposure for one to...

Not A Whit Has Been Lost Since The Last Days of Disco
Life, perhaps, is an allusion. Therefore, gentle reader, please move on to a different review if you don't smile in Pavlovian fashion when hearing uttered the name "Whit Stillman."

Recently I learned that Stillman's Last Days of Disco has yet to break even in sales. Alas, how long we NCAs (see below) have waited since they booked that clown! Damsels in Distress, gratefully, is scarcely stillborn-- rather, it's more Still. If you have worn laser holes into your Criterion-Collection copies of Metropolitan, Barcelona, and The Last Days of Disco, then Damsels will not disappoint. However, if you are unfamiliar with the signature dialogue, settings, motifs, and characters of this returned-to-America auteur, perhaps Damsels will disappoint. Here, I write for the initiates. (And for these, I whisper, "Watch closely: the professor and one of the two off-campus waitresses are familiar friends from the trilogy!")

What's to tell? There are four principle characters, all...

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