SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Ed Dyson The biggest reason to recommend The Cosmopolitans is that it's unlike any other comedy pilot out there. You won't be blown away by its plotting, nor will you find loads of straightforward, sitcom-style gags here. But it's the tone, the rhythm of it that's so distinctive. As with many of Stillman's movies, the characters are slightly formal, awkward and unintentionally funny. One reviewer on here wondered who is meant to relate to a bunch of well-educated but impoverished American twenty- somethings living in Paris. Well, the answer is, anyone with an imagination. You don't have to be a tormented Louisiana cop with visions and a drinking problem to enjoy True Detective, do you? Yet whilst there are thousands of cop shows out there, there are no comedy dramas quite like this on TV. So if you like a bit of variation, give it a go.

IDwasTaken Whit Stillman's THE COSMOPOLITANS is jam packed with clever dialogue, great acting, and some great awkward moments. To me it rang very true, and made me laugh a lot. The lines about the apartment having a view when there was just a sliver of one, not having a decadent affair by going hiking, and the comment about the Starbucks being next to a great building were just a few of the gems in this outstanding Pilot. There are too many great lines of dialogue and to name them all would spoil the fun.If you have seen Stillman's DAMSELS IN DISTRESS you will get the clever reference (I do not want to give it away). I want to watch these characters develop and see where the series goes. Hopefully this series gets picked up as it is a refreshing breath of fresh air. Clever without being crude (very rare today), and shot and directed beautifully. The acting is also really great and I particularly loved Sandro character as I have met Europeans just like him. It was also great to see Chloe Sevigny in another Whit Stillman project. If you do not pay attention you will miss the slew of funny lines.

Leftbanker It's like when you make a cake and forget to add the eggs except replace "eggs" with story. Like that. The pilot goes something like this: youngish people sitting around talking about how sad, lonely, and alienated they are in Paris. It's billed as a comedy/drama but you have to pay really close attention and weed through some accents to find anything remotely resembling humor. Absolutely nothing happens in the first installment (and perhaps the last?). While I applaud the idea of this pilot I wasn't very pleased with the execution. It's just too Whit Stillman who is too Woody Allen without Allen's brilliance for humor (at least sometimes). There's just too much of people trying to be clever, presumably just for the sake of it. What good is it to be clever if you aren't entertaining, or better, HOW can you be clever if you aren't entertaining? Answer: you can't.I found most of the dialogue to be stilted and unnatural. "His girlfriend, Clémence, left him." Why would he say this to someone he hardly knows. It reminds me of the joke, "Help, my son the doctor is drowning." And Hal talks about being lonely, "a feeling of being hollowed out, a void inside that seems as if it will never be filled." I got something to fill your void, 500 pounds of fresh horsesh@t.Stillman has made his career by portraying the lives of really uptight, rich, white punks. He should try hanging out with people who don't have their own drivers or wear thousands of dollars worth of clothes every time they step outside. How about people who work for a living? Is that so repugnant? The Italian character remarks about how Anglo men get pushed around by women. Perhaps, but it's better than getting pushed around by other men. He later gets into a little bitch fight with someone he called a pipsqueak.I had high hopes for this show as we've never had an American series set in Europe before this year (Welcome to Sweden is another train wreck). I was hoping for something that would help to dispel the stupid stereotypes of the French that so many Americans hold as gospel. "French waiters are rude. The French are arrogant." These stupid prejudices have been handed down in America for generations it seems. The Cosmopolitans (at least the pilot) focuses on whinny ex-pats who huddle together in Paris like they are trying to keep warm. There's a little bit about their learning the language which for most expats that is almost everything—or should be—and virtually nothing about how they actually live except a very claustrophobic scene of the girl stepping into her apartment. Maybe if she spent more on rent and less on her clothes she could swing a better place? Unless the next episode has new people who actually do something I'll probably pass.

bobmancini An excellent little Pilot, produced by Amazon as part of their original programming. Audience feedback will determine whether this gets picked up and turned into a full season. But certainly the Pilot is promising. The only problem is it's too brief. We want the rest of the Season for binge viewing right now! Beautiful people in the Beautiful city with Beautiful dialogue. What's not to like? Particularly strong performances from Adam Brody and Chloe Sevigny. The Italian actor is also very sympathetic. This is the Whit Stillman of Metropolitan but now updated for the 21st Century and set against the backdrop of the ever-alluring Paris. An intriguing idea from Amazon. More please!