Damsels in Distress
★★½
Zoia and I were confused for the first third of the movie. Three roommates pick out a new student in a crowd during college orientation:
"Look, there"
"Yes, I think so"
And invite her to live with them, go to parties and join their suicide prevention center. They speak with odd formality and the movie is brightly shot with glowing bloom) everywhere.
We kept waiting for the tone shift, for their true intentions to be revealed. Instead they kept talking strangely, the other characters in the movie acted deeply strange and the new student adopts their mannerisms. As we settled in, the vignettes of college became quite funny at times with human expression peeking through the caricature-like frame most of the characters were set in (a frat boy who never learned the colors, a girl "from London" who had only visited for a few weeks etc).
Even after settling in, the tone is still uneven with earnest but not crisp musical numbers and some shaky performances. I'm a little surprised it made the NYT's Best Movies on Amazon Prime but didn't mind watching something offbeat and weird.