#uhb

Are the members of the Sally Fowler Rat Pack 14 years old or 40? Though Whit Stillman’s comedy of manners remains coy to specifically when this Christmastime story takes place, one thing is eminently clear: these college students were Born in the Wrong Generation, or so they believe. A collage of party scenes is peppered with patter covering everything from literature to art to the state of society these days. Tom extols Socialist ideologies but quickly enough adopts to the black- and white-tie evenings of this pretentious pack. He has plenty of opinions on literature but never actually reads it himself, preferring the one-two punch of literary criticism to tell him what to think. Nick laments the slow decay of society down to the little things like detachable shirt collars, though his cynicism wears thin with the girls in the squad as time wears on. Charlie pisses and moans about the defamation of the aristocracy and proposes the ludicrous acronym UHB, or Urban Haute Bourgeoisie, as a more descriptive alternative to ‘preppy’ or ‘WASP’. Audrey enjoys Jane Austen and isn’t like the other girls. The topics discussed are high-brow and the theories leveraged self-assured. But with Stillman’s sly winking wit, it feels like children playing dress-up. Are the drinks they imbibe truly cocktails, or just Shirley Temples and ginger ale? The fact that it’s enough to get one guy sick at a party would indicate it’s the real deal, but there’s something about people holding nondescript glasses of clear liquid in scene after scene that just starts to feel false. Charlie somehow manages to look more and more like a caricature of a middle-aged accountant with each scene, his ridiculous commitment to long overcoats and neckties peaking in its insanity when two of the Rat Pack venture out to the Hamptons to rescue Audrey (only after being turned away from every car rental agency in Manhattan). The world is very big and constantly changing, and all of that just makes these students seem all the smaller.

For all that Tom pooh-poohs Mansfield Park, this has a decidedly Austenesque feel to its comedy and characterization. The romance between Tom and Audrey is fraught and a one-way street for much of the film, Tom blissfully ignorant of Audrey’s feelings as he pursues another, more distant woman in Serena. Though she weeps and is wounded by the crimes of obliviousness committed by her object of desire, she’s still a strong individual with opinions of her own. Similarly, the dialogue flows smoothly, an ironic river of words where everyone has just the right barb. This isn’t in the camp of a Aaron Sorkin type of clever, where the audience is bludgeoned into submission with verbose prose, but rather falling into that quaint eloquence one could expect from Jane Austen or perhaps one of the Brontës. A nice little bon-bon for after Christmas dinner.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'cab' or 'prep'.

A Christmas tree appears in a scene.

Born in the wrong generation shenanigans.

BIG DRINK

Location- or time-establishing text.

Someone comments on Tom's coat.

We have recieved so much lovely fanart and fanworks lately, we want to make this post to show it off! Marvel at the talent of our fans!

First off is Jennifer, who has done several drawings for us depicting the UHB engines as humans:

Roderick Grimm has drawn Bingsfos in the snow:

Callie imagined how Prydz, Høland, Bingsfos, Setskogen and Tinfos would look as humans:

Erik has built Lego versions of Bingsfos and Cumbersome:

Katelyn has drawn Høland as a human: 

And “PurpleGems” has drawn chibis of them all as humans:

To @little-red-toyota I just want to say thank you very much for everything today. I had a wonderful time on the train up and down the line, getting a chance to have a tour around the railway, for allowing me to enter in the cabs of Holand, Bingsfos and Pyrdz and even letting ride in Bingsfos too. Thank you much for the birthday gifts too, you are awesome!