Damsels in Distress

With Metropolitan (Oscar nomination), Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco, director/scriptwriter/producer Whit Stillman had three of the most important American independent films of the 1990s to his name. After an absence of 13 years, he returns with this comedy. Again the succinct dialogues are most striking in his always rather bizarre characters.
Stillman lets us take a look into the soul of rich American adolescents. Three attractive young female students, led by the dominant Violet, take the newcomer Lily under their wing. They teach her how to behave, who to date and, strikingly, how to prevent suicide on campus. But then men turn up on the scene.
This summary hardly does justice to a plot filled with strange turns. Stillman adds another tragicomic chapter to the subgenre of girlfriend clique films that took off with Clueless, helped by a cast with TV stars Analeigh Tipton, Adam Brody and Megalyn Echikunwoke.