Movie review - "Damsels in Distress" (2012) ****

A welcome return to the movies by Whit Stillman who has been away far too long. He's come up with something with material as strong as anything he did in the 90s helped by a terrific concept - at a modern day college a group of college girls try to help out the depressed and suicidal by teaching them manners and how to tap dance. There's so many wonderful lines and moments, with Stillman's gift of being constantly unpredictable, and a top cast. Occasionally it gets a bit broad and gaggy e.g. people falling off balconies, Audrey Plaza's performance (I normally love her, she just doesn't feel like she's playing the right tone here). And the big problem is the end - there isn't really one. Would it have hurt to have a bit of a story conclusion? His other three features had it. Frustrating, because I think that will hurt this at the box office which will make it harder to get up his next feature.