I don’t understand the social dynamics of the debutante balls that are at the center of this film but since neither does the protagonist, I suppose that is rather the point. My wife noted how this American film weirdly feels British and that makes sense too because they are in essence enacting a watered-down imitation of the social conventions of the British aristocracy. Anyway for these astute observations and an on-point characterization of these barely adults and their infatuations, I give this film full marks and thoroughly recommend it.

After one such ball, a mix-up leads Tom Townsend into sharing a cab with a group of friends going to an after-party. Tom is the outlier as he is a middle-class student with socialist views who lives on the West side while they are all East side socialites. He is surprised to find himself enjoying their company however and some of the girls are in the same school as his ex-girlfriend Serena who he still has feelings for. They start hanging out regularly in the week after Christmas and it becomes to obvious to everyone in the group except Tom that a girl Audrey likes him. But then Serena shows up at a party with her new boyfriend Rick Von Sloneker. He is rich and is a titled aristocrat with European origins and so attracts the interests of the girls despite his playboy reputation. A boy in the group Nick who becomes a sort of mentor figure to Tom to teach him their social dynamics is particularly insistent on condemning Von Sloneker and even gets into a fight with him.

This film looks older than its 1990 year of release and this was a deliberate decision by its director Whit Stillman. He originally wanted to make this a period film but was daunted by the cost and so settled on a dated look instead. This works excellently as the balls are inherently throwbacks to an earlier era and one of themes here is their angst over the continued existence and validity of their so-called haute bourgeoisie class. The other theme is of course the pretentious seriousness of these young people as they debate philosophy, socialism and other weighty intellectual issues while we as the audience can see for ourselves how empty their proclamations are without the weight of life experience backing them up. Tom starts out declaring himself to be an adherent of the socialist Charles Fourier but changes his mind by the end of the film. The crass Von Sloneker doesn’t fit into these discussions at all but his wealth alone is enough to buy entrance. Stillman is a master at capturing these contradictions and hypocrisies of youth and class.

But as with some of the other films of this type that we’ve seen, there’s another reason why this is so well-liked. Even as it mocks these socialites and the naivety of youth, it does so gently and is never mean. We recognize the same attitudes and pompous statements in our younger selves and acknowledge that this is all part of growing up and maturing. The wonder of the group of friends Tom meets is that they do realize that he is much poorer than most of them but it doesn’t matter that much. Nick even teaches him that he can get food, alcohol and entertainment for the low cost of a tuxedo rental. Tom himself has a love-hate relationship with moneyed society, professing to be a socialist and being insouciant about being cut off from his father’s money, yet he clearly does yearn to be closer to his father and appreciates the nice things can buy. The film however doesn’t condemn these characters for their contradictions and flaws, inviting us instead to sympathize with them. To me, this makes it a far better film than if it were a vicious and mean attack on this faux aristocrats.

Metropolitan was the debut of its director and he had to sell his apartment to raise the money to make it. He would go on to make two other films that are now considered to be part of a trilogy, albeit with unrelated characters. Unfortunately his later work isn’t considered as good so I’m not sure if I’ll ever get around to watching them. It does seem that he had a great idea and a strong passion for this particular work and after that lost some of his drive, a phenomenon that seems sadly common. Still, this remains a fantastic film and I recommend it highly.