Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

StyleSk8r At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Alice Digsit A feelgood movie which passes the Bechdel Test with flying colours. Not the usual vapid college kid schlock but a warm and gentle antidote to that genre: a bit of fluff with an off-the-wall script of philosophical spoofing, quirky speculation and some rather unconventional - though possibly worth trying - ideas to cure teenage angst and the ills of the world.Grappling with the big ideas of drama, such as sex, suicide, personal worth, dishonesty and human relations, the script seems to somehow superimpose the normally perceived polar opposites of the intellectual and the airhead to offer a perfect harmony of nutty thinking and altruistic intent.

bluerider521 There are only about five basic stories around, so the writer's challenge is to make something new and interesting out of one of these basic stories. You can change the type of people it happens to, change the time period, and, in doing these things, bring in the styles, and metaphors of such people. An audience will turn out if they believe they are seeing themselves depicted on the screen. Thus, Damsels in Distress is supposed to depict contemporary female college students. It is a satiric comedy, so it has license for some broad exaggeration.Exaggerate it certainly does. A group of sophisticated young women seek to straighten out all that is wrong at a middle level college. Some of the group are incredibly naive themselves. The college men are either super phonies or so dumb that they could be played by the three stooges. Then kind of nothing happens as these premises are played out in a series of rather lame episodes. It ends with a satire of films of a distant past. But the styles of dress, word usage, intonations, and attitudes are (apparently) contemporary to the targeted audience of this film. If you are not the right age, social class, and gender, you will miss some of the targets of the satire.Thus, this film has some curiosity value if you are not the type who says 'this is about us." If it is about you, enjoy it.

kosmasp Of course in Germany they changed the title into "Algebra in Love". Which kind of is something that is in the movie too, but of course the original title is way better. Although I guess it might be confusing for some who don't have a clue what they are watching too. It just states what situation the women in the movie are. But in a different way than some would imagine.Gerwig is great in her offbeat role, but the support cast is helping too. It's a tough theme and script to pull off (as can be seen in some commentaries here on IMDb too), but while it won't reach everyone, I think it will reach enough people who will like/love it.

james-t-sheridan Sometimes a movie can be annoying, pretentious, or merely static. Sometimes a movie gets you on its side quickly, allowing you to forgive any flaws. I can see how some audiences could react to a social comedy like "Damsels in Distress" with its obvious debts to the works of Jane Austen, its nods to the self-obsessed world of academia, and its sun-dappled walks amongst gorgeous columned buildings. I think this film won me over in its first twenty minutes by being strange and deeply funny, so I decided to go along for the ride. I found myself beaming at the end and really recommend it, though I will understand if you dislike it.Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke), one of the lead characters in Whit Stillman's new film "Damsels in Distress," warns the women around her about men who send drinks to them at bars: "What you are describing is a 'playboy' or 'operator move.'" The way that she draws out the syllables in the word had me laughing more and more each time she said it. Rose, along with Violet (Greta Gerwig) and Heather (Carrie MacLemore) form a trio committed to Suicide Prevention at Seven Oaks College, and in the first scene they adopt transfer student Lily (Analeigh Tipton), taking her under the wing and bring her into their world. As Violet hilariously reminds Lily, "Have you heard the expression, prevention is nine tenths the cure? Well, in the case of suicide, it's ten tenths the cure." Violet and her friends upend the social order by selecting guys far below them on the social scale to date: "Take a man who hasn't realized his full potential-or doesn't have much yet...Then help him realize it or find more." Their philosophy involves elaborate dance sequences, long walks through campus, and pillow talk conversations where all four leads share a room. In a loose construction of chapters with cute names, the girls address the major issues of the day: dance crazes, 'operator' types, parties, and the like.I first discovered Whit Stillman films in college where the Film Society showed "Metropolitan" and "Barcelona." I remember the intelligence of his characters, the commitments to studying upper-crust society mores, and the brilliance of Chris Eigeman. "Damsels in Distress" is Gerwig's film, and as Violet she shines and gives very funny line readings. As an idealized, romantic version of college, Stillman constructs Seven Oaks as a site of warring interests, with the Romans (not Greek system) clashing with the elitist newspaper writers for the Daily Complainer being most amusing. Does everything in the film work? No. Tipton is asked to carry far too much of the storyline on her own which muddles the film. No male character is half as interesting as the female ones. Yet the work of Gerwig and Echikunwoke carry the day, and instead of a cool kids in school film like "Mean Girls" or "Heathers," and instead of an acidic attack on college and dating like Neil LaBute's "The Shape of Things," Stillman focuses on a delightfully aloof, well- intentioned bubble of socially privileged and sheltered women with sharp wit, heartfelt emotions, and the ability to country line dance. From fashion to dialogue, the women seem wonderfully out of joint with their time. No one carries a phone or checks email. It is almost a shame that the men have to be included.