Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Damsels in Distress Blu-ray Movie Review

The damsels may not be the only ones distressed when the lights come up.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman September 25, 2012

Frivolous, empty-headed, perfume-obsessed college co-eds.

Writer/Director Whit Stillman (The Last Days of Disco) returns to the screen following a lengthy hiatus with Damsels in Distress, a picture's that's both funny and frivolous, both whimsical and whacky, a picture that's as confounding as it is captivating, a movie that will elicit as many "what in the heck?" reactions as "one heck of a movie" thoughts. The picture showcases a haughty and socially wayward (though not in their estimation) female clique on a mission of collegiate clean-up, of ridding the campus of stinky, unintelligent, and otherwise unacceptable boys through any means necessary, including a whole lot of self promotion and false or nonsensical insights into the world in which they live, a world that Whitman leaves largely undefined and unspecified other than that it's obviously set in recent days within in the greater galactic timetable. The movie says a lot but doesn't always speak to its audience. It feels often detached and meandering, unfocused and concerned more with a particular style and its own energy life force than compiling a complete and/or traditional narrative arc. It's at times flimsy, at others almost magical, and sometimes absolutely enigmatically vapid. It's a curious yarn to say the least, one that requires of its audience a particular mindset, a certain sense of humor, and a draw towards cockeyed, untraditional cinema to fully appreciate or even partially understand whatever it is that may or may not be at the center of Stillman's long-awaited return to the big screen.

The meaning of life in a bar of motel soap.

It's new student orientation time at Seven Oaks College. Three girls -- Violet (Greta Gerwig), Heather (Carrie MacLemore), and Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) -- scope out the new arrivals and present themselves to one, and only one, new student: Lily (Analeigh Tipton). She's the prettiest and probably the most like them, they think. Lily's a sophomore transfer with nowhere to room due to over-enrollment. The girls open their room and their hearts and welcome Lily into their fold and catch her up on their mission: to transform Seven Oaks more into their image and away from the male-centric experience that still hangs over their once all-male campus. They work the suicide prevention center, tap dance, and generally effort to shape things more to their liking. Along the course of the school year, they become intimately involved with boys of varying backgrounds, including Frank (Ryan Metcalf), Charlie (Adam Brody), Xavier (Hugo Becker), and Thor (Billy Magnussen), the latter of whom cannot even tell his reds from his blues from his yellows from his greens. While working through campus transformation and the intricacies of young love, Violet and crew aim to start a new dance revolution of their own design with the "Sambola."

Perhaps the biggest mystery of Damsels in Distress is what, exactly, the film aims to accomplish, never a good sign unless the movie's purpose is to celebrate the enigmatic and run with its inherent awkwardness. Here's a movie with an almost unidentifiable rhythm except for when it's deliberately unidentifiable. It's populated by out-of-norm characters, out-of-place dialogue, and no perceptible sensibility or sense of time, place, or purpose. Does it aim to be a character study? Societal commentary? Or is it just plain plucky and perky and abstract for the sake of being such? Is it a smart movie, a wannabe smart movie, a movie that's too smart for its own good, or a movie that's no good at being smart? Pick a scene and the answer seems like one and all. It's a movie that seems deliberately flawed and that strives to find a quirky rhythm and equally quirky characters to move it along. It can be most obnoxious but at the same time have its audience transfixed by whatever it is the movie efforts to achieve. The movie celebrates its travels off the beaten path and its blurring of the line between original and screwy, imaginative and crazy. Some viewers will laugh, some will find in it meaning that may or may not be there, and others might just wind up at the suicide prevention center. Here's hoping for those latter viewers that doughnuts and not death await.

The character roster falls in line with the rest of the movie, and audiences displeased with them will find displeasure with the entire picture. The clique is neither as humorously hateful as that in Heathers nor as playfully personable as that in Clueless. In Damsels in Distress, the obnoxious, holier-than-thou clique with a single and, in their view, irrefutable worldview represent the film's "heroes," deliberately flawed -- likably so and otherwise -- though they may be. That's an intriguing ground floor of a character roster, but this group falls into no extreme where the audience completely approves or disapproves of their actions, and it's difficult to penetrate their inner circle and discover what it is that really makes them tick, even as the movie focuses entirely on them. It's as if they're from some nebulous nether region where they're not really bad people but nowhere close to Cher and friends from Clueless, a movie in which the girls' sense of sophistication and their efforts to better the world around them was met with whimsy and humor. Here, the core clique is at best a curiously awkward bunch, often not particularly relatable and certainly not like anything audiences have encountered before. Then again, the picture aims for some otherworldly, dreamlike state that both structurally and thematically seems to channel some alternate, ethereal dimension, not literally but certainly figuratively. The picture evokes feelings of some universe where one switch has been flipped in the opposite direction, yielding a world easily recognizable but somehow off, a world in which these characters, anyway, operate in some manner of faux adulthood and haughtily ponder the not so great questions of the universe in an effort to feel better about themselves and force their lives into whatever type it is they they aim to inhabit.

Damsels in Distress Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Damsels in Distress arrives on Blu-ray with a peculiar look that satisfies the film's tone and style but might leave some audiences wanting a more polished and picturesque sort of viewing experience. The 1080p, 1.85:1-framed transfer is sourced from the original digital elements and takes on a terribly flat, overblown, sterile, almost dreamlike quality. It's ultra-smooth and, while nicely detailed, not exactly a razor-sharp, crystal-clear sort of HD image. Viewers will note suitable textures on building exteriors, clothes close-ups, and other areas usually revealing of eye-catching detailing. Colors are equally drab, not necessarily lifeless but a bit washed out and never exactly vibrant. Black levels are fine, and flesh tones often reflect that bright, blown-out appearance. Occasional banding creeps in from time to time, but the transfer is otherwise proficient in all areas. This is not a traditionally sharp digital image; it's as unique as the film and viewers need be ready for it.

Damsels in Distress Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Damsels in Distress arrives on Blu-ray with an occasionally uneven but generally satisfying DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Never is this a particularly aggressive presentation, even in the picture's most musically oriented moments. In fact, it plays rather small at times, evident even over the opening titles which offer fair clarity but not a very wide spacing or hefty volume and energy at reference levels. Even a dance party sequence early in the film lacks a rich, pulsating beat from its tune or a real sense of spatial immersion into the environment. Ambient effects are limited and not terribly immersive. There are a few good moments of booming thunder and falling rain, but such are few and far between. Dialogue is sometimes presented in a slightly lower volume than expected, but clarity is fine and the spoken word remains primarily focused in the front-center. Like the video, this audio track isn't one to remember, but it serves the movie admirably enough.

Damsels in Distress Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Damsels in Distress contains the following supplements:

• Audio Commentary: Writer/Director Whit Stillman and Actors Analeigh Tipton, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Carrie MacLemore, Adam Brody, and Greta Gerwig speak on the picture's score, shooting locales, challenges of the shoot, the process of shooting various scenes, cast performances, costumes, the script, and more. There are some gaps in the commentary but altogether it's a fine group track that's balanced and never confused and never features all participants talking over one another at the same moment. Available with optional English and Spanish subtitles.
• Damsels in Distress: Behind the Scenes (1080p, 10:10): This "extended featurette" offers cast and crew discussing the plot, themes, casting and the performances, Stillman's work and influence on the set, characters, and more.
• An Evening with Damsels in Distress (1080p, 28:38): Moderator Pete Hammond questions Writer/Director Whit Stillman and the primary cast.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 7:08): A Great Lotion, Be Fruitful and Multiply, Decline of Decadence Part II, The Unrequited, and A First Encounter with the Bizarre and Inexplicable.
• Outtakes (1080p, 5:59).
• Damsels in Distress Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:23).
• Damsels in Distress Soundtrack (1080p): A still-image advertisement for the record, available from Milan Records.
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

Damsels in Distress Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Damsels in Distress is not a catchall sort of movie with wide, mass audience appeal. At best it's a niche film targeted at a specific audience. It's a movie for acquired tastes, a picture built on quirkiness and unusual, to say the least, characters, dialogue, situations, and settings. It's a sharp divide sort that will leave some in the audience laughing hysterically and others wondering what's so funny, never mind what's actually going on and/or what really defines these characters beyond their quest to reshape their school. It's oddball cinema at its divisive best, which means Sony's Blu-ray release -- with its video transfer reflective of the director's vision, decent audio, and a fair collection of extras -- definitely comes recommended as a rental by anyone unfamiliar with the film or Writer/Director Whit Stillman's previous works.