Whit Stillman, with Love and Squalor

Damsels in Distress

*** out of ****

Directed by: Whit Stillman

Starring: Greta Gerwig, Analeigh Tipton, Adam Brody, Carrie MacLemore and Ryan Metcalf

Running time: 99 minutes

Watching a Whit Stillman film is like observing an “in crowd” of friends frolicking without abandon at retro fads and engaging in hyper-intelligent conversation. This cool, preppy, sharply observant crowd is one you may be eager to join, although you will always be standing at the periphery, a little aloof at how the group flows from one engagement to another.

Stillman is a revered writer/director in the canon of 1990s independent film. Damsels in Distress, a refreshing and peculiar dark comedy set at a preppy university, is his first film in 14 years.

The film centers around four girlfriends, our titular damsels, as they navigate the trials of relationships, both with each other (as friends) and with the opposite sex (who are their distress).

The damsels – all with floral-centric names – are erudite leader Violet (Greta Gerwig), free-spirited Heather (Carrie MacLemore), sassy-spoken Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and blossoming freshman Lily (Analeigh Tipton). Lily acts as an audience surrogate, peering into the unfamiliar styles of this clique.

Violet, Heather and Rose work with a youth outreach program at the Seven Oaks University to help students that may attempt suicide.

The social triad also spends their free time analyzing the philosophy of social life on campus. It is the girls’ mission to rid Seven Oaks of its “male barbarism.” Thankfully, their self-righteous pedantry becomes less overbearing as the film moves along.

The most fascinating character is Violet, a damaged soul who tries to give herself therapy by administering her personal woes to others going through a similar sorrow.

Written like the remarkably vain child of literary characters from Muriel Spark and J.D. Salinger, she speaks with an elitist vocabulary and stance over the rest of the student body. When Lily points out that Violet is a hypocrite, Violet doesn’t reprimand her friend but analyzes the truth behind the comment, like an inquisitive university professor.

Throughout the film, she receives her own confrontation with death, and this massages the character’s pricklier edges. Gerwig is perfectly cast as the off-kilter leader, witty and egregious (although she does come to charm as her character brightens up).

Beyond the sourness of the film's suicide elements, the film mainly chronicles the ebbs and flows of the romances between the damsels and their distress, the men in their lives. 


Among them are: Charlie, a smooth operator with many secrets (Adam Brody), a dim-witted frat boy named Frank (Ryan Metcalf) and his close friend, Thor (Billy Magnussen), an aloof jock who doesn’t know what the colours are. Frank is Violet’s correspondence, and the magnetism from their opposite personalities works to sharp comic effect.

Although these students’ adventures are episodic and some characters slighted into fewer scenes, the body is a delightful and endearing circle of friends. Their quirks and blemishes are fascinating, but their spirit is delightful, leading to a buoyant song-and-dance number toward the film's end.

These scenes, shot with effervescent Technicolor, display the sunnier progression these characters have made throughout the semester. (Hint: it comes from the scent in the soap.)

Damsels in Distress may be a school-set comedy that's too cool for school. But when that cool comes from the clever and ultra-stylized (although sometimes maddening) rhythms and rhymes of Whit Stillman, you're in for a peculiar and original treat - even if you're still trying to understand how his characters move, think and speak.