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Damsels in Distress

Play trailer Poster for Damsels in Distress PG-13 2012 1h 39m Comedy Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
75% Tomatometer 142 Reviews 39% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
At Seven Oaks College, three dynamic coeds -- group leader Violet (Greta Gerwig), principled Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and sexy Heather (Carrie MacLemore) -- set out to change the boorish male atmosphere and rescue their fellow students from depression, grunge and low standards. They spot Lily (Analiegh Tipton) at a student orientation and welcome her into their group. However, when the gals become romantically entangled with a series of men, the fallout threatens their friendship and sanity.
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Damsels in Distress

Damsels in Distress

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Critics Consensus

Damsels in Distress can sometimes feel mannered and outlandish, but it's redeemed by director Whit Stillman's oddball cleverness and Greta Gerwig's dryly funny performance.

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Critics Reviews

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Keith Uhlich Time Out Nov 4
4/5
Too many movies come to us as preordained cult objects — this is the real deal. Go to Full Review
J. Hoberman ARTINFO.com 02/25/2019
[Damsels in Distress] is genteel lowbrow farce, with musical comedy aspirations. Go to Full Review
Kate Stables Sight & Sound 07/09/2018
Here, both dialogue and plotting are prettily presented but unfocused, and the broadness of the comedy makes the romantic misadventures of Violet and her new recruit Lily appear whisper-thin. Go to Full Review
Eddie Harrison film-authority.com Jul 24
4/5
…as the old-school title suggests, Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress has an underlying warmth for its charmingly verbose characters that makes for a strikingly original, melodrama-free comedy… Go to Full Review
Michael Leader Den of Geek 05/07/2024
4/5
Stillman has certainly found a new strain of delightful silliness in this queer trifle. For while Damsels In Distress is far from his sharpest work to date, it's certainly his most fun. Go to Full Review
Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies 08/20/2022
4.5/5
“Damsels” is a quirky little comedy that is almost impossible to put in a box. It has its own uniquely wacky sensibility and is driven by its slick dialogue, cleverly constructed narrative, and a delightfully peculiar sense of humor. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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09/04/2023 Damsel in Distress' was, in my opinion, one of the worst films I've seen in a decade. The plot fell flat, and everything about this movie was absolutely horrible. See more Gareth v 06/20/2023 One of the more intriguing talents in Hollywood, I find Greta Gerwig rather annoying in this movie. The characters I couldn't care about and the jokes were so stilted. Lame effort See more steve d 12/06/2022 The script is smart and hilarious. Gerwig is FANTASTIC. See more susan j 02/06/2022 Loved most of Whit Stillman's flicks but this one....eeeah. The first 35 minutes were engaging, witty, quirky, and compelling enough - but then it went off the rails into a fantastical-realism parody of itself. It was like Stillman was aiming to make a Wes Anderson film but he's too wry and observational to do that. Wes Anderson has wisps of sadness comingled with sweetness, directness, whimsy and absurdity. Whit Stillman is too much of a realist to pull off something earnest---so, what is meant by Violet (Cloe Sevigny) saying she is determined to learn as many cliches as she can since cliches stacked back to back contain some of the world's finest wisdom. Two college guys in their D-list fraternity, saying literally: "What color's that? Blue? OK, what color's that? Green...huh. And what color's the wall? That's green too? Whoaaa. You know it's not my fault I'm still learning my colors --how should I know the difference between blue and green? Who are you to think yourself to be superior to someone who has not yet grown into their intellect? I may be ignorant. In fact I am. But at least I'm not arrogant." Like...what Whit Stillman doing here? Who are these people supposed to be? It's not surrealism. Not absurdity. Not farce. Not even poking fun at "dumb jocks" or "stoners" or "braindead children of privilege." It's something half-considered, and tiresome. The whole movie is like that--heavy-handed instead of light-hearted. And somehow not unlike eating a underdone cupcake--smells good, looks terrific, gummy, pasty, doesn't taste great, ends up a chore to finish. Which I didn't. After the initial promising 30-35 minutes I was able to force myself to watch another 25, but no more. See more @ExcessMale 08/22/2021 Out of the modern romantic comedies from Whit Stillman, this is by far the most eccentric and filled with punching dry humor and sarcasm. Greta Gerwig absolutely carries an already charming script. See more 10/03/2020 It's very obviously a movie with an acquired taste, which would suggest (and explain) the polarity in the audience reviews. See more Read all reviews
Damsels in Distress

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Movie Info

Synopsis At Seven Oaks College, three dynamic coeds -- group leader Violet (Greta Gerwig), principled Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and sexy Heather (Carrie MacLemore) -- set out to change the boorish male atmosphere and rescue their fellow students from depression, grunge and low standards. They spot Lily (Analiegh Tipton) at a student orientation and welcome her into their group. However, when the gals become romantically entangled with a series of men, the fallout threatens their friendship and sanity.
Director
Whit Stillman
Producer
Whit Stillman, Martin Shafer, Liz Glotzer
Screenwriter
Whit Stillman
Distributor
Sony Pictures Classics
Production Co
Westerly Films
Rating
PG-13 (Some Sexual Material|Mature Thematic Content)
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 6, 2012, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 3, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA)
$1.0M
Runtime
1h 39m
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