Damsels in Distress
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 6, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
11
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayApr 1, 2012
Even though I'm not sure I understand what Stillman was going for minute-to-minute, I was swept away by how original Damsels is, and how funny. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirApr 5, 2012
Damsels in Distress is deliberately and purposefully irrelevant; its irrelevance is its strength. It's zany-in-quotation-marks and also flat-out zany. I laughed until I cried, and you may too (if you don't find it pointless and teeth-grindingly irritating). Either way, Whit Stillman is back at last, bringing his peculiar brand of counterprogramming refreshment to our jaded age. Read full review
88
New York PostFarran Smith NehmeApr 6, 2012
Damsels contains much that's familiar to fans of previous Stillman films such as 1990's "Metropolitan": looping jokes that build on one another, allusions to art and literature, characters who are proudly out of step with the times. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversApr 5, 2012
Welcome Damsels in Distress, an exhilarating gift of a comedy about college, the female intellect, the limitless male ego, inventing a new dance, and suicide prevention. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineMiriam BaleApr 3, 2012
The clash of styles in Damsels in Distress is bewildering and then disarming. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 6, 2012
In its own superannuated preppy way, Stillman's comic universe is as singular as Woody Allen's. Read full review
80
NPRJeannette CatsoulisApr 6, 2012
Even were it not so delightful, Damsels in Distress, set at a fictional upper-crust college, would deserve a watch for its dialogue alone. Read full review
80
The GuardianXan BrooksApr 5, 2012
If it's possible for a picture to be at once ideal and imperfect, then Damsels fits the bill. Read full review
80
Time OutKeith UhlichApr 3, 2012
Too many movies come to us as preordained cult objects - this is the real deal. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezApr 27, 2012
The performances are all terrific - Stillman gets his actors to latch onto his absurdist vibe, then gives them wonderfully rich dialogue to play with. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 12, 2012
The film treats depression and despair and young love with just enough gravity so the movie doesn't float away completely. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertApr 11, 2012
Stillman writes his own dialogue, and is a master of clever double-reverse wit. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenApr 1, 2012
This is a mannered comedy, more stylized and theatrical, almost surreal at times, and less accommodating to his trademark brand of razor-sharp dialogue. Read full review
70
The New York TimesA.O. ScottApr 5, 2012
Even if it did not have other charms, this peculiar, uneven campus comedy would be worth seeing for the delightful felicity of its dialogue. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsApr 5, 2012
It all sounds absurd and simplistic, but I dare you to watch the joyful delirium of the big dance number, set to an old Fred Astaire tune called "Things Are Looking Up," and not to feel an unexpected sense of rosiness. This movie may contain endorphins. Read full review
70
Village VoiceEric HynesApr 3, 2012
The thing that Damsels and its damsels value above all else - outside of well-timed, well-phrased, slyly deployed witticisms (Stillman hasn't lost a step) - is sure to rankle mavericks on both sides of the aisle. Forget the economy - it's about conformity, stupid. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 2, 2012
Given the earnest mayhem that prevails at your local multiplex, there is surely a place for a lightly mocking modernist with a growing distaste for the modern. [9 April 2012, p.84]
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinApr 2, 2012
Stillman's comeback comedy Damsels in Distress is wobbly and borderline twee, but it deepens as it goes along and becomes rich. Read full review
70
VarietyLeslie FelperinApr 1, 2012
Stillman proves he still knows how to write crackling, articulate dialogue for quirky preppie characters whom he loves laughing at as much as with. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterNeil YoungApr 1, 2012
Highbrow campus-comedy from long-lost Whit Stillman is a flawed but frequently hilarious comeback. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisApr 19, 2012
These are women who seemed raised on Louisa May Alcott and might have been aspirationally besotted with Jane Austen. But you sense tragedy looming. They're hurtling, inexorably, toward Tennessee Williams. Read full review
60
Total FilmMatt MuellerApr 19, 2012
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. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierApr 5, 2012
Just as precise and self-consciously precious as predicted. Which doesn't mean it hasn't got moments of charming wit buried under all its archness. Read full review
60
MovielineStephanie ZacharekApr 3, 2012
How much you enjoy Damsels will depend on your tolerance for Stillman's particular brand of duct-taped Sperry Topsider whimsy. It's a comedy! It's a musical! It's a trip down memory lane to revisit the blissful confusion of our - or someone's - college years! Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineJoseph Jon Lanthier Apr 1, 2012
While the scenario has all the smirking charm of Stillman's earlier movies, the sobering realities of off-campus life are never even alluded to, and the humor of insularity eventually becomes stifling. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumApr 4, 2012
Gerwig can't make her character come alive, though, and neither can Adam Brody as one of their neediest male cases. In the midst of the froufrou, lovely, stalklike Analeigh Tipton (Crazy, Stupid, Love) is delightful as a student who enjoys being normal and living in this century. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMay 4, 2012
Damsels in Distress is shockingly tone-deaf. Stillman is still capable of a few amusing quips, but his storytelling is sophomoric. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 25, 2012
Stillman inserts chapter headings and written asides into the proceedings, but none of it helps explain what is before us. The authorial voice in Damsels in Distress lacks definition. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 19, 2012
Welcome back, Whit Stillman -- with Damsels in Distress, the hipper-than-thou club is back in session. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 12, 2012
A movie sure to reward the filmmaker's most die-hard fans, while doing little to quiet critics who found his work self-conscious to the point of insufferability. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigApr 5, 2012
These are hardly damsels, but the distress will be felt by audiences watching the collection of non sequiturs, twee remarks and tangential vignettes that is Damsels in Distress. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesSam AdamsApr 5, 2012
Stillman too often substitutes pith for insight, until even that is drowned out by the sound of him chortling into his sleeve. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 13, 2012
You can almost say it simulates an experience of brain injury in the audience: Nothing adheres, nothing connects. It's just nonstop cuteness, poses and emptiness - with nothing logically following from one moment to the next. It would be exaggerating to call it torture, and yet why split hairs? Read full review
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