Whit Stillman makes affectionate comedies about privileged young people who take their social difficulties seriously. His dialogue and ensembles are a considerable pleasure, though Metropolitan shows how forced the romantic plotting can become.
Fi1m perspective
The young New Yorkers in Metropolitan (1990) attend debutante balls, then settle down to discuss the future of their class. They treat the prospect with a gravity Stillman is willing to hear out. We laughed at their solemn assumption that this ought to concern everyone else, too. His debut gets its warmth from taking their worry seriously without asking us to endorse their estimate of their own importance. This is a funny, generous film, and the clearest reason we have for recommending his work.
Stillman’s writing needs actors who can make rehearsed-sounding opinions reveal uncertainty. Edward Clements’s Tom Townsend is an outsider learning how to behave in a group whose conversational habits are already established. Chris Eigeman gives Nick Smith a brisk certainty, while Taylor Nichols lets us hear Charlie Black working harder to sound sure of himself. Those differences keep the talk from becoming a procession of the writer’s favourite lines. Stillman makes room for the actors to show how much effort goes into belonging.
Barcelona (1994) and The Last Days of Disco (1998) followed, completing a loose autobiographical trilogy. Eigeman and Nichols were recurring collaborators across those films, a useful continuity for a director so interested in how people address one another. After a thirteen-year gap, Damsels in Distress (2011) took his verbal comedy to a college campus. Love & Friendship (2016), adapted from Jane Austen’s Lady Susan, extended his interest in manners into period comedy. The settings change, but conversation and romantic entanglement remain his chief concerns.
His stylised speech can sound affected, and Metropolitan becomes less convincing when its romantic complications have to provide momentum. Having made the conversations so exact, Stillman makes us notice the effort of finding things for these people to do. The mannered acting that serves the talk so well has less to offer when the story needs a more immediate response. None of that spoils the pleasure of listening to Eigeman and Nichols. For an evening of good talk, start with Metropolitan.
Biography
Whit Stillman is an American writer and director. Born John Whitney Stillman on 25 January 1952 in Washington, D.C., he graduated from Harvard University in 1973.
Stillman made his feature debut with Metropolitan (1990), which he wrote, directed and produced. The film earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. His subsequent films include Barcelona (1994), The Last Days of Disco (1998), Damsels in Distress (2011) and Love & Friendship (2016).
