Movie Type: Comedy of Manners, Sophisticated Comedy
Themes: Social Climbing, Class Differences, Party Film
Main Cast: Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements, Christopher Eigeman, Taylor Nichols, Allison Rutledge-Parisi
Release Year: 1990
Country: US
Run Time: 98 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
The debut film from writer-director Whit Stillman etches a sophisticated comic portrait of New York debutante society at the twilight of the 1980s. Set during the Christmas season, the film is told from the vantage point of Tom Townsend (Edward Clements), a self-professed proletarian radical who stumbles into the social sphere of a group of well-off Upper East Side twentysomethings calling themselves the SFRP (or Sally Fowler Rat Pack, named in honor of a frequent party hostess). The group includes Nick (Christopher Eigeman), an acidic misanthrope; sweet-natured Jane Austen acolyte Audrey (Carolyn Farina); Charlie (Taylor Nichols), a tongue-tied bumbler secretly in love with Audrey; and femme fatale Cynthia (Isabel Gillies). Quickly, Tom, who comes from much more humble beginnings, finds himself caught in the middle of the group. Audrey even develops a crush on him, but Tom is still reeling from a broken relationship with renowned man-eater Serena (Elizabeth Thompson), a peripheral member of the SFRP. It all leads to a romantic climax at the Southampton vacation home of Nick's womanizing arch-enemy Rick von Sloneker (Will Kempe). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Review
Though Richard Linklater and Kevin Smith may get most of the credit for giving birth to the downwardly-mobile post-adolescent talkfests of the '90s independent film boom, writer/director Whit Stillman's auspicious debut served to establish the other end of the spectrum. Set in an unspecified time "not so long ago," Metropolitan pokes affectionate fun at Stillman's ilk: overeducated East Coast preppies with too much time on their hands, mostly disposable incomes, and concerns both petty and universal. Stillman mocks and evokes Jane Austen with his mismatched pack of masters and debs who pair off in unlikely couplings, all the while secretly pining for some other member of their extended high-society group. As with Linklater and Smith's films, the dialogue is the true star here: the endlessly hilarious observations about literary criticism and agrarian socialism mask the characters' charming, quaint ignorance of matters of the heart. Stillman evinces stellar performances from his cast of then- (and in most cases, still-) unknowns -- including the ingratiatingly obsessive Edward Clements and Carolyn Farina -- and at least one breakout star turn from the irrepressible Christopher Eigeman, doing for this film what Vince Vaughn would do for Swingers several years later. Although Metropolitan is a little rough around the edges technically, it's to Stillman's credit -- as well as to cinematographer John Thomas and editor Christopher Tellefsen -- that he's able to create a palpable, encased-in-amber atmosphere on such a small budget. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
Dylan Hundley - Sally Fowler; Isabel Gillies - Cynthia McClean; Bryan Leder - Fred Neff; Will Kempe - Rick Von Sloneker; Stephen Uys - Victor Lemley; Ellia Thompson - Serena Slocum; Alice Connorton - Mrs. Townsend; Roget W. Kirby - Man at Bar; Catherine Atzen - Herself; Caroline Bennett - Sabina (Texas Deb); Victoria Chickering - SFPR Friend (Early-nighter); Frank Creighton - Cadet Frawley; Hank Foley; Linda Gillies - Mrs. Rouget; Andrew Lyle - SFPR Friend (Early-nighter); Blayne Perry; J. Harden Rose - TV Voice of Debutante Ball; Kevin Schack - SFPR Friend (Early-nighter); Joel S. Schreiber - A.T. Harris Salesman; Tina Thornton - SFPR Friend (Early-nighter); Tomas R. Voth - Cab Driver; Donal Lardner Ward - North Greenwich Preppie; John Carroll Lynch - Allen Green
Credit
Brian Greenbaum - Co-producer, Whit Stillman - Co-producer, Peter Wentworth - Co-producer, Mary Jane Fort - Costume Designer, Whit Stillman - Director, Christopher Tellefsen - Editor, Tom Judson - Composer (Music Score), Mark Suozzo - Composer (Music Score), Tom Judson - Songwriter, John Thomas - Cinematographer, Whit Stillman - Screenwriter
Shot on location in Manhattan and Long Island, the movie depicts the lives of young, upper-class New Yorkers (or as one character attempts to rebrand them, the "urban haute bourgeoisie") during debutante ball season while home for winter break in their first year of college. Middle-class Princeton student Tom Townsend, an admirer of Fourier's socialism, observes this comedy of manners with an outsider's distance but eventually becomes deeply attached to the characters he meets.
