Review of Metropolitan (1990) by Orlok W — 11 Feb 2013

A film that somehow bridges the gap between Gen X comedies of the nineties and Jane Austen, "Metropolitan" is the story of a group of friends who are all pretending for everyone's benefit.

Set in the late 1980s and possibly being the predecessor to films such as "Reality Bites" and "Empire Records", "Metropolitan" has characters that are happy to philosophize and mediate on debates of culture and art, but can't understand the dynamics of their ever shrinking group, or the implications of their actions in the context of love.

The group contains many college freshmen, most considered debutantes, living in New York during winter break. Newcomer Tom (Clements) is more middle class than the rest of them, but sidles in thanks to the affections of a longtime admirer, Audrey (Farina).

Within the group are several trend-following nymphets, a dodgy intellectual, a sweet tempered literature lover, and a narcissist and hypocrite who seems to guide them all at first, until they turn on him and his lies.

That character is Nick (Eigeman) who comes off as a sort of nihilist towards his upper class friends, commenting on their sophisticated indulgence as an outsider, and insulting their bourgeoisie lifestyles while living it himself and calling for at least self-awareness.

This indie film had many little performances that made a big impact. Much of this is resting on superb dialogue, between characters that are unpredictable while still being familiar. This film was nominated for Best Original Script at the Academy Awards that year and I can understand that from the dialogue heavy content .

The group's world is something I've never seen on film because it's constructed from their own fallacies and hang ups. We as the audience cannot understand their motives because we're not voyeurs into the elite, but into a group of martyrs.

Besides some awkward performances, which kept me from absolutely loving this film, it was well written, directed, and shot. Interesting and flamboyant in every sense of the word, you will want to see this look into a world within a world.