Damsels in Distress

source: Damsels in Distress

I thought Damsels in Distress was a delight. I especially liked the humorous lines, as well as the dancing scenes. We have all waited a while for another Whit Stillman movie and this did not disappoint! I really liked the setting for the movie and the costuming--it made it seem rather timeless. The actors were very well selected and played their parts faultlessly. I love the fact that Violet is so real and shows her emotions, as do the other girls. They are very idealistic, but still like to have fun. The people who went with me to the movie all agreed that we left the theater in a jovial mood and we talked about the movie for over an hour after leaving the theater. I want to go see it again!

'DAMSELS IN DISTRESS': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Quirky teen comedy-drama about three college girls who run a Suicide Prevention Centre and offer words of wisdom and advice to troubled new college students while also trying to deal with their own issues. It was written and directed by Whit Stillman (who also helmed the eccentric comedies 'THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO', 'BARCELONA' and 'METROPOLITAN'). It stars Greta Gerwig, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Carrie MacLemore, Analeigh Tipton and Adam Brody. The movie is pretty aimless and slow paced but it's also always amusingly strange and whimsical. The story is set at an East Coast college named Seven Oaks where Violet (Gerwig), Rose (Echikunwoke) and Heather (MacLemore) attend. The college has a mostly male dominated tone, despite becoming coed several years earlier, and the women feel forced in to having to deal with brutish and dimwitted guys all the time. They run a Suicide Prevention Centre and are also constantly trying to recruit freshman girls in to their clique to educate them on the ways of the campus (as well as the world). This year's recruit is Lilly (Tipton). Lilly runs in to man troubles right away and the others try to help her deal with them while also dealing with their own. The movie has no real direction or strong character objective. It just kind of follows these young girls around as they struggle with adapting to life. It's slow and will bore the hell out of some viewers but others will be quite entranced by it (and others somewhere in between). I found the dialogue to be quite witty and funny and I loved all of the performances. I also really enjoy how quirky and in love with individuality the film seems to be. To me that's a great message to send young viewers (if they actually see the film, it might have missed it's target audience). The movie is a quiet little piece of cinema joy if you let it be. Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olADa6vEcMk

i like all whit stillman movies prior to this one. damsels in distress is very self-conscious and out of touch, sort of like woody allen's approach to directing twenty-year-old women, mixed with mamet at his least natural (oleana, which is still far, far better than this). the major part of the movie contains actresses reciting dialog they can barely handle with varying degrees of discomfort and musical cues that don't at all make up for the lack of emotional content. lots of uncomfortable spaces are left for the audience to laugh, and at the show i saw, nobody did laugh excepting a pair of women who were really forcing themselves to do so, which was yet another forced layer of this tedious and often risible movie going experience. while there are occasional moments that could have been funny if the delivery was there, a lot the comedy is very, very broad stuff with yelling and mugging/"funny faces." yeesh. at least noah baumbach can make a pretty good whit stillman movie these days.