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.
Writer-director Whit Stillman returns with a campus comedy full of unabashed joy and wonderfully wonky characters.
The casting of the adorkable Gerwig is key here; her screwball sass gives Stillman’s wryness some added spryness.
A mixed return for Stillman, Damsels is so whimsically out of step it’s like a time-travel comedy without the time travel. Fortunately, Gerwig and some dazzling dialogue save his blushes.
It doesn’t help Stillman’s case that Damsels in Distress suffers from direction that’s often uninspired and inept, but then Stillman was always a better wordsmith than visual stylist. All that said, it’s good to see such a filmmaker with such a genuinely unique sensibility making movies again.
There’s clearly a witty mind at work, although what’s on screen suggests an open martini bottle too.
Gilded by a giddy Greta Gerwig, Damsels In Distress is a sharp, daffy, eccentric delight. Stillman may be an acquired taste, but no-one else is making films like this. Cherish it.
The end result doesn’t so much reflect a filmmaker dancing to the kooky beat of his own drum, but one capriciously flailing around because he’s used up all his best moves.
The off-beat sensibility may appeal to some but I found it torture.
There's certain amount of interest initially in where the story is headed, but like Violet and her chums, the film's mannered way becomes very annoying, very quickly.
Alas, much as I wished it otherwise, [the director's] comeback is mostly unlyrical, and worse, unfunny.
You’ll be able to count the number of laughs on one finger.
A rare pleasure to watch, and a pleasure to have Stillman back.
An acquired taste, but a taste you should really try to acquire.
A therapeutically funny romcom.
Unsaveable.
This is a feelgood film, if you must – but not in any way you'll recognise. You'll gape at the sheer improbability of Damsels In Distress, but go with it, and you may find it lifts your soul even as it makes your jaw drop.
There is a good deal of whimsy here mixed with the wit, and the deadly seriousness of the students leads to everything being taken to extremes.
The nearly-there story fails to progress into anything of much interest or narrative value, even for the genre, making Damsels in Distress a film that doesn’t quite know what it is – or, at least, doesn’t quite have the courage to get there.
Whit Stillman: 'If you want the perfect future, invent it yourself'
Director Whit Stillman in interview
General release. Check local listings for show times.