…is off to a slow start before off and running the University track in what could quite possibly be the most charming, smartest and tightest-delivered little gem film of the year! Set at Seven Oaks in a could-be-anyplace east coast campus, the story pits the century-old Ionic columns of Greek architecture against the arrival of the boorish, dominating, male student.
Enter three refuse-to-be-damsels: The team leader, Violet (Greta Gerwig), super-cool icy, Rose (Megalyn Echikunwoke) and
sexy-but-unaware, Heather (Carrie MacLemore). Then there’s new comer, angelic bug-eyed Lily (Analeigh Tipton.) The three damsels insist they’ll take Lily under their wing, shield her from depression, and guide her through the smelly men with low standards. Besides, “Boyfriends are a major suicide risk” hence they run a Program for Suicide Prevention.
The male characters add an eclectic mix of every Frat house stereotype, like Rick (Zach Wood), the conceited and arrogant editor of The Daily Complainer who certainly grew up to run either The New York Observer or The New Yorker!
The Frank “blue-eye” scene nails the words dweeb/dork/loser while on the flip side, Rose delivers a direct and Caribbean-cucumber-cool performance where she sees every man as an “OPP-er-a-tor” all with a British accent. (think Barbados woman in a lounge chair.)
But when a “tailspin” slowly unravels Violet, we realize her agenda might just have been men all along. Gerwig’s performance is as sensational as her Ben Stiller film Greenberg while the other girls stick to their characters in a way that almost feels
“sitcom” meaning “the hook of a characters ongoing weekly performance.”
Writer/director/producer Whit Stillman is back just the way we loved him in Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco. Great combo of brainy and entertaining, Stillman’s script captures the words and then later grabs great performances
from his cast from behind his camera.
The movie gives new meaning to women who over-think things but in the end, this NOT your mother’s university experience circa 1970s, but instead one that reflects modern day females dressed in stilettos, perfumed, full of self-esteem and ready to tackle the barbaric reality of testosterone-driven males. The Sex and the City girls could have learned a few things attending
Seven Oaks. Four Tiaras