Pun Salad

When John Miller came out with a list of the best conservative movies a few years ago, I'd seen most of them. One I had missed was Metropolitan, a 1990 movie written, produced, and directed by Whit Stillman. (The writing part got him an Oscar nomination.) Finally, I got around to it. And it didn't make me rave, but it was unusual and unexpectedly watchable.

And it's not my kind of thing at all: it concentrates on a close-knit group of Manhattan-based upper-class socialites, in the midst of something called the "debutante season". This involves a lot of post-dance gatherings where conversation occurs. A semi-outsider, Tom Townsend, gets caught up in the group. He refers to himself as a devotee of Fourier's socialism, and still has a hopeless crush for Serena, a girl from his college days. Tom develops an asymmetrical relationship with Audrey: he enjoys discussing literature with her, she's gradually becoming smitten with him.

Much of the dialog is ultra-stilted, affected, and (sometimes) mean; for a group of ostensible friends, they sure do insult each other a lot. They're obsessed with their status and prospects. As weeks go by, unexpected alliances are formed, characters are revealed.

Although billed as a comedy, there aren't a lot of jokes; the amusement is to be found in observing the characters' manners, pretensions, delusions, and affectations. This worked for me, maybe not everyone.

The actors are relatively unknown, and IMDB makes it easy to verify that. Edward Clements, who played Tom, had a grand total of one more movie appearance, as "Young Crewman" in Star Trek VI.