In the nineties, Whit Stillman and Amy Heckerling made some of our most fondly remembered, sparkly-smart comedies: Stillman directed Last Days of Disco, Metropolitan, and Barcelona, while Heckerling helmed Clueless. As it happens, both have films coming out this year after a long absence from theaters, and Stillman’s Damsels in Distress — his first movie in fourteen years — feels like his own take on Heckerling’s immortal nineties comedy, this time with Greta Gerwig subbing in for Alicia Silverstone. Gerwig plays Violet, the leader of a clique of well-mannered (and impossibly erudite) meddlers who take naive Lily (Analeigh Tipton from Crazy Stupid Love) under their wing to teach her the ins and outs of their school. Do the two girls tangle over the affections of Adam Brody, and does one realize at the end that she may be “totally, butt-crazy in love†with him? That you’ll have to see for yourself this April.
