Metropolitan

Released 1990
Stars Carolyn Farina, Edward Clements, Christopher Eigeman, Taylor Nichols, Allison Parisi
Directed by Whit Stillman

Audrey Rouget:  "What Jane Austen novels have you read?"
Tom Townsend:  "None. I don't read novels. I prefer good literary criticism. That way you get both the novelists' ideas as well as the critics' thinking. With fiction I can never forget that none of it really happened, that it's all just made up by the author."

This is a wicked satire of the lives and values of a group of New York preppies during the debutante season. They meet nightly during their Christmas vacation to discuss social mobility, Fourier's socialism, and play bridge. The group is terribly pompous and self-important, and they only discuss issues that befit their lofty social status. The problem is they're so young, they only understand these topics on a superficial level. The result is a skewering satire of the "social elite" as they transition to adulthood.

Summary by Bill Alward