The film is titled Damsels in Distress, though, there are no male, macho protagonists to aid the fraught co-eds in their plight. No, it is up to Violet (Greta Gerwig), Heather (Carrie MacLemore) and Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) to aid everyone else as they campaign to empower their fellow woman on the campus of Seven Oaks College.
The film's opening credits advertise Gerwig, MacLemore, Echikunwoke and Analeigh Tipton (as Lily) as "The Damsels." It then goes on to say that "Their Distress" are Adam Brody (as Charlie Walker), Ryan Metcalf (as Frank), Hugo Becker (as Xavier (pronounced "Zavier")) and Billy Magnussen (as Thor).
Stillman has stylized the film as a series of linearly constructed vignettes chronicling Violet et als attempts to aid the clinically depressed (some might say suicidal), their struggles to find a nice, average looking, mentally mediocre fellow from one of the campus's many Roman Letter houses (they're like Greek fraternities, but Roman), and Violet's journey to debuting her hit new international dance craze.
Each chapter/vignette comes aptly titled including the gems like "The Algebra of Love" and they all feature the witty and charmingly hilarious dialogue that Stillman has been famous for since his very first feature, Metropolitan.An old Hollywood adage states, "They're called motion pictures, not people talking," but Stillman is one of those very select few who can violate this non-rule. Much of this film, indeed, much of most of his films, is just people talking. That's the joy in it, though, because people talking is how character's are best developed and who doesn't love a little character development (that's a trick question because there is an actual answer and his name is Ehren Kruger, look him up, see what he's done).
See this film for the dry hunk of humor that it is. Stillman does with each successive film evolve the current state of film writing and proves that he is one of the great dialogue magicians of our time, on par with the likes of Leo Tolstoy, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Woody Allen.
Damsels in Distress - 4/5
