Damsels in Distress (2011)

This quirky, talky, awkward comedy about college girls yearning for the propriety of another era isn't for everyone--one of my friends, Jim, not only walked out on it but damned the theatre that showed it. Jack and I found it funny, and not only because we wanted to prove Jim wrong. I've seen all three of director/writer Whit Stillman's previous features, Metropolitan (1990) (nominated for the Original Screenplay Oscar, among other wins and nominations), Barcelona (1994), and The Last Days of Disco (1998), but I frankly don't remember them so well. In fact, we saw this two weeks ago and I don't remember that much about it either. Better get cracking before I forget it all. To jog my memory, here's the one-liner from imdb: "A trio of girls set out to change the male-dominated environment of the Seven Oaks college campus, and to rescue their fellow students from depression, grunge and low standards of every kind."

Greta Gerwig (co-star of Greenberg, supporting in No Strings Attached) won Best Actress at the Dublin International Film Festival for playing Violet, the leader of this pack who treats most of their male friends like developmentally disabled children in need of coddling. It's a joke, Jim! Probably the most uptight character in the pack is Rose, played by Megalyn Echikunwoke (here's something else I don't remember: her part as one of Kelso's girlfriends in a late season of That 70's Show, but I do remember her as Don Cheadle's hooker-girlfriend in the HBO series House of Lies). Then there's Heather, played by Carrie MacLemore, making her feature debut, who does whatever her friends tell her. Think of heather as a flower and you'll realize the trend when I tell you the next girl is named Lily, played by Analeigh Tipton (the babysitter in Crazy, Stupid, Love. and Jason's girlfriend Sandee in the third and final season of HBO's Hung). Next to join the group is Priss, not a flower name, who is played by Caitlin Fitzgerald, who was the elder daughter in It's Complicated. The always-funny Aubrey Plaza (April in Parks & Recreation) has a small part. Among the boys they pity yet desire are Adam Brody (apparently was in 92 episodes of The O.C., but I wouldn't know) as Fred, Ryan Metcalf (new to me and most everyone in his second role ever) as Frank, and Zach Woods (Gabe on The Office) as Rick DeWolfe.

Composer credit is given to Mark Suozzo (his first, fourth, eighth, and most recent at thirty-seventh credit are the Stillman movies, and in between there are such winners as American Splendor (2003), The Notorious Bettie Page (2005), and The Nanny Diaries (2007), all based on real people, and a bunch of documentaries) although his name is listed on only 8 of the 18 tracks on the soundtrack album. While I write this I've been listing to the assorted tracks on his website.

Oh, and there's some dancing, though not as much as the trailer led us to expect. Perhaps not first on anyone's list (rottentomatoes gives it 76% from critics and 52% from audiences), it's still pretty darn funny.