Damsels in Distress movie review (2012)

"Damsels in Distress" is the fourth film (and the first since 1998) by Whit Stillman, who as a younger man, looked like F. Scott Fitzgerald and spoke like someone who had learned the language through sophisticated comic novels. He made a kind of movie nobody else was making, about rich and privileged young people moving in the very best circles — which is to say, their own. He called them the "urban haute bourgeoisie." They consider "yuppie" a term of praise. His "Metropolitan" (1990), about a young man hoping to win acceptance from such snobs, was a considerable hit, in part because no one had seen a movie like it unless one possibly running in black and white at 3 a.m. on TCM. Then came "Barcelona" (1994) and "The Last Days of Disco" (1998). What they had in common is that the supporting cast of a Fred Astaire comedy could have wandered in and not been noticed.

My critic friend Peter Debruge writes me wondering if Stillman is channeling further back than Wodehouse: back to the days of Thackeray, the Dandy tradition and Vanity Fair. And indeed there's a bit of Becky Sharp in Violet. She probably likes novels where women are the arbiters of social circles.

Now Stillman centers on a fictional college that's like an Ivy League school for those who are not very rich or smart. Two of the men in Violet's life, for example, don't know the names of the basic colors; in one case, it's not so much that the kid is stupid as that his social-climbing parents made him skip kindergarten.

Violet of course must have a posse; friends who are not quite as tall or (in her mind) not quite as pretty. They flank her, because Violet must always be centered. On the first day of the new school year, we meet them: Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and Heather (Carrie MacLemore), who both instinctively stand just a step behind her. Violet has ESP when it comes to picking out new recruits, and she and her friends sweep down upon Lily (Analeigh Tipton), a campus newcomer. Lily will be their new roommate. Thus will all of Lily's wardrobe, behavioral and boyfriend problems be handled for the next few years.

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