Revered indie writer-director Whit Stillman – who like the late, great John Hughes before him, also gave voice to a generation of young adults and hipsters rarely seen on the big screen – is back after a 13-year absence with the deliciously droll, decidedly quirky, and periodically cumbersome Damsels in Distress.
In this farce, set on the campus of a fictional East Coast college, indie stalwart Greta Gerwig (The Dish and the Spoon, Greenberg) leads the large ensemble cast as Violet, the analytical-minded queen bee of a close-knit quartet of college girls who share something unusual in common: they are all named after flowers.
Violet, along with BFFs Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and Heather (Carrie MacLemore), take recent transfer student Lily (Crazy, Stupid, Love’s Analeigh Tipton) under their wing and show her the ropes. Violet, along with the girls, runs the school’s suicide prevention center and is determined to help people improve not only themselves but others, preferably through dance, or coffee and donut consumption, or the use of expensive scented soap – whichever proves most effective.
Violet and company also do battle with the overwhelming frat-boy sensibility that still permeates the campus years after the once all-male school went co-ed. In one of the film’s high points, Violet goes toe-to-toe with the editor of the campus newspaper (Zach Woods) in a blistering battle of the sexes that proves to be the film’s political and philosophical zenith. There’s another scene involving Violet where she discusses the “decline of decadence” with her friend and love interest Fred (“The OC’s” Adam Brody) that’s particularly memorable for its zingers – a Stillman hallmark.
Admittedly an acquired taste, Stillman has become something of a demigod to fans of droll, quirky comedy of manners that feature hyper-articulate and unapologetically bourgeoisie characters (mostly white) waxing poetic about a variety of topics.
Having made a splash with his first effort, 1990’s Metropolitan which landed him his one and only Oscar nomination to date (for best original screenplay), Stillman avoided the dreaded sophomore slump with the well-received Barcelona in 1994, and cemented his status among film hipsters as Woody Allen’s WASP heir apparent with 1998’s The Last Days of Disco which starred Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny.
Then he seemingly vanished after that. Fans wondered what happened. A combination of budgets being hard to come by and projects getting stuck in development limbo is what happened. He pretty much picks up from where he last left moviegoers 13 years ago with his last effort, only he’s aged and his characters have gotten younger and more ethnically diverse.
He’s certainly found a muse in Gerwig, an actor who is seemingly incapable of being dull onscreen. Unlike some of her fellow actors in Damsels, she’s entirely at home breathing life into Stillman’s staccato verbiage. Tongue planted firmly in cheek, Gerwig is Stillman’s ace in the hole, and makes this talking heads movie – with one of the oddest endings in recent memory – worth checking out.
Grade: 3.5 stars (out of 5)
Stars: Greta Gerwig, Adam Brody, Analeigh Tipton, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Carrie MacLemore, Hugo Becker, Ryan Metcalf, Billy Magnussen, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Jermaine Crawford, Aubrey Plaza, Zach Woods, Alia Shawkat, and Taylor Nichols
Directed By: Whit Stillman
Written By: Whit Stillman
Produced By: Whit Stillman, Martin Shafer & Liz Glotzer
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Rating: PG-13, for mature thematic content including some sexual material.
Running Time: Approximately 99 minutes
Website: http://www.sonyclassics.com/damselsindistress/
Budget: $3 Million
Genre: Comedy
Release Date: May 4, 2012
