I agree Troy – I think that’s why Stillman’s films are so special – and while I would rate them in the order they were made (Metropolitan being my favorite and Last Days being my least) they still offer an opinion and viewpoint that you don’t often see on screen. Although, I have to view my fondness for them the same way I view my love Oscar Wilde’s writing; as verbally delightful as they are, they always come across as representing something not entirely truthful; they speak the way the writer wishes they would speak. I haven’t decided yet if I think that air of theatricality is a good thing or not!
I’ve only seen one of the “trifecta”, but I’d say the argument pretty well falls apart when you realize that METROPOLITAN sucks as a film. Badly made, badly written, badly acted, a plea for sympathy for the damned: a batch of spoiled brats who’ve never done a day’s work in their lives and who will never have to do a day’s work in their lives sitting around whining.
@Tom-I have to agree with you. Metropolitan is the only film of his i’ve seen and I was not impressed. Didn’t care about the characters or what happened to them.
@tom i completely disagree with this assessment as i don’t really feel that stillman is pleading for sympathy as much as he is drawing parallels between the viewer(us “normal folk”) and his characters(the “social elite”) the young characters in his films have the same worries that the average young person does…they ask themselves questions like will i succeed? what if i am a failure? what, given my level of upbringing, constitutes a failure? and they bumble around and stumble into each other in their socially awkward ways as they attempt to figure them out. i believe on some level that stillman understands who he is dealing with(“spoiled brats”) but that he wants to add some level of humanity to the proceedings allowing the viewer to see for themselves that these people, no matter how far removed from us they may seem, share some of the similar characteristics that we all have as human beings.
but then again, he could have just pleased everyone and gone the napoleon dynamite route and just made fun of his characters for two hours.
humanism vs. misanthropy? i will take whit stillman’s charming humanism everytime.
Great, Troy. You found it charming and humanistic. Stillman’s alleged attempts to add some level of humanity to these spoiled brats failed miserably, at least for me. A shallow picture of a shallow group of people, empty and vapid, who have everything handed to them on a silver platter and who expect me to feel sorry for them or recognize a degree of humanity in them that they would never in a million years feel for anyone without a trust fund or home in the Hamptons or Park Avenue address.
it seems that you are allowing your rather trite class generalizations about the “unfeeling” rich to cloud your judgment of the film.
and this comes from perhaps the monetarily poorest person posting on this site.
good, as well as bad, people come from all walks of life…financial security has little to do with it.
stillman, like george cukor before him, are among the few directors in the world who seem to understand this.
but feel free to hate on…
Tom – first of all, the main character (Tom Townsend) isn’t a rich kid like the rest. He would’ve been, had it not been for his parent’s divorce. There’s the running joke of his wearing a flimsy trench coat during winter, but it’s ok, “it has a liner.” It’s also a debut film! There are some soft spots in the acting, but it doesn’t affect the film overall – and for a debut film, it’s not poorly made at all!
But my real disagreement here is when you describe them as a bunch of spoiled brats. Yes, they may be spoiled, but they’re not brats (well, not most of them.) If you actually take the time to listen to Charlie speak, he talks about downward social mobility, and the inability of people of the “preppie class” to accomplish anything worthwhile because of their stations in life. That’s half of the movie’s point right there; how we view that particular class, and how that class views themself. Maybe you should watch it again with less of a chip on your shoulder!
I certainly understand that class and money are not impediments to decency and honesty. There are rich folks who are saints on earth, there are rich folks who I wouldn’t trust to tell me which way is up. I’m reminded of what Ernest Hemingway’s alleged response to F. Scott’s Fitzgerald’s statment that “The rich are different.” He supposedly said, “Yes, they have more money.”
I’m certainly open to films about privileged people that show that being rich isn’t all it is cracked up to be. I just found METROPOLITAN to be a colossal bore, whiny to the extreme, and centering on a group of characters I’d gladly have seen mown down by gunfire.
Does anyone know what has become of Stillman?
he was mowed down by gunfire :)
By the AFL-CIA?
Tom, you found ALL of the characters worthy of a swift execution? I know some of them are annoying – but you found nothing at all to like in any of them?
Last I heard, Stillman’s in production for “Little Green Men” – based on the book by William Buckley.
None of them. I didn’t give a damn about any of them. Well, maybe that Nick, if that’s his name, the one who tells the story of the imaginary girl at the party. Maybe.
God I really loathed every minute of that film.
Ah, Polly Perkins pulling a train. A composite, like New York Magazine does!
three films doesn’t make a trilogy.
it makes three separate films.
as for the films themselves, haven’t seen LAST DAYS OF DISCO,
METROPOLITAN: Very funny at times, well-written, but very poorly delivered. Some hilariously bad line readings in this. Taylor Nicolas especially (he spoke the same way in BARCELONA, very high-school-theatre delivery (unless it’s an impediment, in which case, good for him)). really enjoyed how cynically idealistic Nick was.
BARCELONA: enjoyed it when I first saw it, hasn’t made much of an impression. for a satire/social-comedy, kinda picked a soft target. but like METROPOLITAN, I enjoyed Stillman’s love for these yuppies. not often you find universal sympathy in american movies. probably go back and take a look at this.
I think Stillman is producing now.
“Metropolitan” is the only Stillman film I’ve seen, and now I’m dying to see his other two films. I think your assessment, Troy, of Stillman capturing the “sociological detail and sympathetic humanism in a milieu of generally misunderstood people” is right on the money. Furthermore, seldom do I like to go back and rewatch dialogue-driven movies, but “Metropolitan” always beckons me back. A brilliant piece of work. Where the heck has good ole Whit been, anyway" Is he still hiding out in Paris?
Love Metro and LDD. LDD blasted/creeped into my top 10. Love them all. Haters probably listen to KISS and have a top 25 dominated by the likes of Cowboy Bebop. How’s that for ignorant lashing out?
Badly written?!? Are you kidding? This is one of the top five scripts in the last thirty years!
And it is hardly about a group of “whiney, spoiled brats.” It’s about a group of young people trying to find themselves and figure out life in the situation in which they find themselves, which in this case happens to be in a place (Upper East-Side New York) and a time (the early 80s) in which their situation is being scrutinized and semi-plundered (let’s not forget that one of the big best sellers from 1981 was The Official Preppy Handbook, which allowed imitators from anywhere pretend that they were from Mayflower families and had gone to Yale).
Thematically, this film is exactly the same as Los Olvidados … The Outsiders … On the Waterfront. It’s just showing that offspring with advantage have the same doubts/feelings/problems as everyone else, just at another degree and/or angle.
And it’s hysterically funny! How can you not laugh when they feel the need to invent new terms and labels because the old ones have been co-opted (“U.H.B.”)? Or at the character who doesn’t read actual literature, but “good literary criticism” instead? Or at Nick’s endless witicisms? Brilliant.
Thematically rich, hysterically funny brilliant one of the top five scripts of the last 30 years, comparable to LOS OLVIDADOS and ON THE WATERFRONT to some.
Pointless, badly written, badly acted and badly directed toothless would-be comedy about a pack of spoiled rotten rich brats from hell who should be lined up against a wall and shot to others.
For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to see The Last Days of Disco, as no dvd exists in this country, it’s currently being shown on Hulu free of charge.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/62271/the-last-days-of-disco
Just be warned, while Hulu provides these films for free in rather high-quality, they stuff them with more commercials than you’d have to suffer through were it being shown on television. The high price to pay for freedom, but apparently the Criterion release is being held back indefinitely due to rights issues.
thanks Brandon. good tip.
“Roscoe” started out with some points worth mentioning, accompanied by, let’s just say, a shot of extra passion. But then once others responded with some countering views, “Roscoe’s” responses quickly devolved into rants that sound more shrill and whiney than the “Metropolitan” characters he seems to hate with such passion.
And then to add in gratuitous comments like “lining the characters up against a wall to shoot them” … well, that says volumes about how little attention we should pay to “Roscoe” after all, n’est ce pas?
Amazon has Barcelona for 6 bucks. Stillman commentary too.
Chris Eigman was great on Barcelona. Thanks for the amazon tip Casey, just ordered it
Stillman is definitely an engaging anomoly in these trying movie times: his conversation-rich, nearly plotless, and always engaging work features compelling characters, played by actors who look—and act—like real people. Equally impressive, he deftly employs his delicious dialogue to capture the social makeup of a character at a critical emotional juncture. One of my (many) favorite lines, in the The Last Days of Disco, is when Josh, the assistant district attorney, informs Des, his womanizing friend and the Club’s manager, that the Club is under investigation: “I consider you a person of some integrity. Except, of course, in your dealings with women.” I concede that Stillman’s universe of priviliged preppies and their social, professional, and personal dilemmas is not for every moviegoer. But it’s one that is always challenges audiences to think and listen as it entertains, informs, and enriches them. Eleven years of no new Stillman is too long.
“When you’re an egoist, none of the harm you do is intentional.”
Any idea when Metropolitan will be released on Blu Ray?
I’ve only seen Metropolitan, but I Loved it and I think Chris Eigeman should be in way more movies.
Agreed, Chris Elgeman is a great actor and seems to steal any scene he’s in.
He’s been in various T.V. series lately. A couple years ago he appeared in an episode of ‘Fringe’ that I was watching.
I was also surprised to see that he was briefly in the Americanised version of one of my favourite parody sci-fi series ‘Red Dwarf’ back in the early 90’s. He was later replaced by a different actor which was a shame because I think that he captured the character’s obnoxiousness a lot better.
If anyone’s curious (it’s rather awful compared to the original series really):
2:14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mN3ZUrduNUs&feature=related
It never took off as the British series did.
Big surprise.
troy myers
other than kieslowski fans, can anyone make a strong argument against whit stillman’s trifecta of films(metropolitan, barcelona, the last days of disco) being the most aesthetically complete and textually rich trilogy of similar themed films in cinematic history?
has anyone ever captured, with both sociological detail and sympathetic humanism, a milieu of generally misunderstood people(preppies) so effectively?
i bet not.