Review of Damsels in Distress (2012) by Leong C — 23 Oct 2012

I'm new to Whit Stillman, so can't comment on this being a return to form or not after over a decade away. However, I was won over by the offbeat tone of the film, with its hip retro-cool characters spouting earnestly pretentious musings.

Sometimes such deliberately twee films can get very tiresome, very quickly, but I found it a genuine pleasure in this case. Much of this comes from the cast, with Greta Gerwig bringing a likeably earnest eccentricity to Violet, contrasted nicely by Analeigh Tipton's "normal", down to earth Lily.

Carrie MacLemore is cute, bubbly support and only Megalyn Echikunwoke is short changed slightly with some over-repetitive dialogue. It's Stillman is focused on his damsels, as the male characters are non-entities, some deliberately caricatured like Ryan Metcalf's hilariously dim Frank.

I did feel Charlie and Xavier could've been given more depth to act as strong male counterparts to the girls. I'm sure it won't be to everyone's taste, but then neither is the American Pie series and I know which crowd I'd rather hang out with.