Damsels in Distress (2012)

Director: Whit Stillman

It's hard not to describe this film as anything but a Whit Stillman film. It has everything you expect from his films: whip-smart dialogue, subtle intellectual jokes, young well-off characters who still complain about their lives, and an exploration of a specific young people culture. The only way this film is a little different from his other films is that it's not about bourgeoisie yuppies of the 1980's, instead these characters are modern day girls in college. These specific college girls, led by a great lead performance by Greta Gerwig who is really coming into her own as an actress, are not your average college girls though, they are smart self-confident girls who date men who are pretty much buffoons. It's a very specific subculture, but Stillman treats it as a subculture nonetheless. The girls believe it is their duty to help these boys out and elevate them by dating them, all in addition to operating a suicide prevention center out of what they believe to be their own good will. In the beginning of the film though, a new girl comes along, befriends them, and provides perspective to what they are doing by confronting the selfishness in their actions.

Like all Stillman films, there is very little plot and the true joy of the movie comes from listening to these people speak and just go through their fairly normal life. Their complaints about their normal life is also what makes them such shallow people, because all this faux-drama is introduced even though their lives are really quite simple. The movie though is pretty slight, not really ambitious at all. The reason to see the film is because it's just a joy to see smart intellectual, but arrogant and selfish, people try to find love and connection with other human beings, especially with those who aren't like them. Stillman's dialogue is just wonderfully entertaining because of its unique Woody Allen-esque intellectual humor, though it's definitely a type of humor that not all filmgoers will connect with (see at your own risk). Damsels in Distress does its dialogue and characters best, and while it's not the most meaningful film by a longshot, the film does provoke thoughts on the ideas of shallowness, ones principles and its relationship to your image, all while being enormously entertaining and funny.

Grade: B

The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Director: Whit Stillman

Whit Stillman doesn't parody, criticize, or even celebrate the WASP/yuppy subculture, he just depicts it. It's an easy subculture to criticize, but Stillman finds a way to sympathize with them while also making statements about society in general. The other great thing that comes with Stillman's familiarity with the subculture is his ability to write some really witty and entertaining dialogue that is so relatable yet so foreign at the same time. Both of these qualities are in full display in The Last Days of Disco, though it is not quite as interesting as his previous two brilliant films Metropolitan and Barcelona.

This film feels a bit more scattered and formless than the last two, and so the emotional power is lessened. But the movie does succeed in not being the exact same as the first two in the sense that while the characters in the movie are yuppie types, the setting is the disco era, and so the culture we see is one that is quite distinct. The movie actually looks at the end of this era, a time of promiscuity and fun. It's a time in which people can break the set of rules at night that they abide by during the day. It's certainly fascinating to see the end of this era, the end of the disco years, and how the difficulties of change affect some of the characters, especially with relationships. The Last Days of Disco is a film about precisely that, the last days of disco.

Grade: B

Filmcap: The week of Aug 14-21

"The Debt" and "Barcelona" this week. The first is so straightforward I had a hard time finding anything substantial to say about it, and the other I found a lot to say about it quite easily. This is a post about grown up thrillers and cross-cultural love. Enjoy. Next post is the start of the school year, so I hope you're excited for double the amount of movies every week. I certainly am. 

Filmcap: The week of Mar 28-April 3

This week saw my second pre-Annie Hall Woody Allen movie in two weeks, a 1990 movie that feels very much like a Woody Allen movie, a very stylish French noir, a violent Korean movie, and newly released 2011 film. I've also been watching the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers," when I finish that I'll review that in one of these as well (probably in a week or two).