‘Playing strip poker with an exhibitionist somehow takes the challenge away...’
The indie cinema boom of the ’90s meant that anyone could raise a few thousand dollars, put a movie together and hope to sell it at Sundance or one of the other film festivals before setting off on the road to stardom. It was this era that birthed the careers of Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith, Robert Rodriguez, Spike Lee and many others. Whit Stillman was at the vanguard of this movement and his debut film Metropolitan was one of the first to demonstrate to Hollywood that independent movies could not only be critics’ darlings, but also, crucially, be profitable…
The plot follows middle-class Princeton student, Tom Townsend (Edward Clements), as he becomes immersed in a group of young upper-class Manhattanites through the gala debutante season. Nick Smith (Chris Eigeman) acts as Tom’s guide, helping him to traverse the world tuxedos, cocktails and cod-philosophical conversations.
As with all of Stillman’s films, Metropolitan is very light on plot and heavy on dialogue. Mileage will vary with how much tolerance people have for this the ratio of conversation to action. Me? I love films that are basically just people in rooms talking, even if those people are so far removed from my own life as to render them akin to aliens from Mars. I know nothing of this world, but I thoroughly enjoyed being part of it 100 minutes or so, and I felt I left this universe richer for having experienced it.
Based on the work of Jane Austen, Metropolitan has a very literary feel to it. It reminded me of the work of J.D. Salinger or Donna Tartt, two writers who also made me feel like I was entering another world completely foreign to my own. What makes it feel accessible are the cast, who are somehow likeable despite the fact that most of them are arrogant rich kids. Clements holds the viewers hand through this strange timeless world (Stillman deliberately made the time period in which the film is set difficult to ascertain), and his curiosity and is infectious even while he keeps a distance from the rest of the group due to his social inferiority. Eigeman is the real star here, however. Given all the best lines, it’s a performance that wouldn’t look out of place in a Coen brothers movie, or something by Woody Allen. Based on his turn here, it’s surprising that he didn’t go to be a star.
Metropolitan is very of its time, and if films are still being made like this, they aren’t being picked up for wide distribution, and they certainly aren’t being nominated for Oscars as this one was (for Best Original Screenplay), and that’s a shame. The film is not just an entry point into a very specific world at a very specific time, but also a snapshot into ’90s independent cinema more generally.
