I was prepared to hate this movie, even though or because I was one of the extras in it. Most of us were dazed by the mere fact that we were picked for background because we apparently looked upscale, since most of us were sporadically employed actors living in creepy lofts with too many unregistered roommates, creepier basement illegal sublets, and (in my case) an all-female SRO populated equally by out-of-town career girls and old biddies on pension, many of whom were well along the process of losing their marbles. Since I was also being stalked by a genuine upper-class twit at the time of shooting, I had little sympathy for the characters of a project that I assumed (like many other extras) was a student film helmed by a trust baby.

When the film came out, it upended all these expectations. I *knew* these characters: the outsider who doesn't know if his longing to fit in means he's selling out, the snotty guy who's actually kind of sweet, the "nice" girl who's never properly appreciated, and the cool girl who takes her power for granted. Even the way the girls try to support shy Audrey over slinky interloper Serena is true to type. They may be stereotypes, but you've met them too, regardless of your socio-economic level. The pseudo-intellectual dialogue didn't make them less sympathetic, it made them more so--they are *desperate* to impress. Well who, at that age, isn't? Some people do it with clothes or athletic achievements: these kids do it with words. As for the pony-tailed possible sociopath, he reminded me painfully of my stalker--now I knew that these jerks who think they can get away with anything don't just target little peasants like me. They endanger their own class too.

Everything that people have criticized in this film, the stilted delivery, the awkwardness, is what makes it wonderful. It captures perfectly the struggle to be accepted. You could point out that Stillman does a certain amount of this in "Barcelona" and "Disco" also, but then do we ever really outgrow the need to be accepted? Only the settings change.

Brilliantly written. Stillman's first in his trilogy, this sets the standard for the offbeat banter and dialogue of the two films that followed, "Barcelona," and "The Last Days of Disco." Surprisingly great acting, I think, as well--from a cast of, at the time at least, relative no names. As talkfests go, this is a keeper.

After seeing this twice and looking forward to watching it again, I can only wonder: Where did Whit Stillman go? We have not had writing like this since Jane Austen. Now grant you, Joe Wright did wonderfully replicate Pride & Prejudice like I never thought possible, but we have had no literate, original American writers dare to attempt a book or screenplay so packed with angst, politics, desperation, literacy, insight, and brilliance to compare with the great Jane Austen herself. Every line in this film is just plain enlightening. These are all thinkers, all radically different, truly educated, well-bred (in the best tradition and sense of the past), and normal to the extent any of us can be. The pathos is still the everyman/everywoman, but the insights just flow and flow and roll on and roll on. I admit Aaron Sorkin shoots the moon and some of his screenplays harken to the genius of the Austen-type writers, but there is still the modern jaded language and crassness we are flooded in everywhere. Not with Stillman, the setting is modern and relatable even if you are poor or middle class but the values are old-school like many of us still ponder and reminisce about. So where are you Whit Stillman? I have not enjoyed writing like what you have made here since I read the magnificent late, great Jane herself.