Metropolitan (1990)
Whit Stillman
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Plot Summary
In Whit Stillman's Oscar-nominated classic, a group of young upper-class Manhattanites are in the midst of their gala debutante season when an unusual outsider joins them and stirs things up.
Credits
Director
Screenwriter
Rotten Tomatoes Movie Reviews
TOMATOMETER
89%- Reviews Counted: 27
- Fresh: 24
- Rotten: 3
- Average Rating: 7.6/10
Top Critics' Reviews
Fresh: Filmmaker Whit Stillman makes a strikingly original debut with Metropolitan, a glib, ironic portrait of the vulnerable young heirs to Manhattan's disappearing debutante scene.
Fresh: Like chamber music, Metropolitan is sprightly, intimate and all too self-aware.
Fresh: Not very much happens in Metropolitan, and yet everything that happens is felt deeply, because the characters in this movie are still too young to have perfected their defenses against life.
Fresh: Whit Stillman's crafty independent feature about wealthy Park Avenue teenagers and a middle-class boy who joins their ranks over one Christmas vacation is certainly well imagined, and impressively acted by a cast of newcomers.
Customer Reviews
Classic New York Coming of Age
This isn't your typical John Hughes teenage coming of age story. The John Hughes movies were great and all, but this is much more an indie affair. But not in the way you'd expect. This movie presents a story about awkward romance among New York debs and WASP rituals that's very conservative in its outlook. And all the more refreshing because of it. It doesn't have a happy ending, particularly. Not much happens, really. Boy meets girl and doesn't really end up with her. It's like a New York version of American Graffitti meets Jane Austen. It's bittersweet and nostalgic and felt very true to me. Because even the Park Avenue UHB's (don't ask) are pretty much like the kids from anywhere USA after all when you get right down to it.
Sublimely Written
The screenplay is delightful, and the performances are superb. So intelligent and witty that it is in a class by itself. Please make Barcelona and The Last Days of Disco available as well.
Whit Stillman grows on you
The first time I saw Metroploitan, I absolutely HATED it. Like a few of the reviewers on this page, I found it flat, boring and pretentious. A couple of years later I watched it again. I don't remember why I gave it a second chance but am I glad I did! It is a bit slow paced but that is, in fact, part of its charm. And it is anything but pretentious. Quite the opposite. It doesn't matter that these rich kids spend all their (very considerable and pampered) free time talking about the stock market, Jane Austen, literary criticism and the misrepresentation of the burgoise in French film, we are very aptly reminded, due to Stillman's subtle and sharp characterisation, that they are after all, just kids.
Give the movie a shot. Afterwards, you might want to try Stillman's second movie - Barcelona. Just as good, with a more exotic locale and slightly more mature characters.
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