The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Back in '98, it was "The Last Days of Disco" soundtrack I'd bought, trying to get into the genre (just look at the song list, a better disco primer there ain't). If a CD can wear out, it would've been that one. Fantastic album.As for the rest of the movie - which I just got around to actually seeing . . . well it's not that I need a plot to enjoy a movie, just that the dialogue used to carry this one emanated from characters I really didn't like. Credit Whit Stillman's ear for dialogue, but there's also a vapidity to these people (ivy league educated but they've got no damn sense). It really was the music that kept me watching this. Although it seems the only thing that can sour a good Bernard Williams bassline is a proceeding Blondie song (agh!).One other thing about this; that can't be what they thought the early '80s looked like. Outside of the workplace scenes, these actors could've stepped onto the streets of 1998 with no crowd reactions. It's bizarre.5/10

There's a bit of an ungainly plot, and you never buy into the period vibe it goes for, but the real problem with this Whit Stillman film as I see it is there aren't more of them to compare this to. Generally, "The Last Days Of Disco" presents a wonderfully hilarious multi-character piece that builds with multiple viewings.Alice (Chloë Sevigny) and Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale) are a pair of young assistants to assistant editors at a mid-sized Manhattan publisher, circa "The very early 1980s." How early? Disco is still going on, particularly in one local club frequented by the two girls and their college friends.Stillman movies always make for a certain disconnect. You can read it in the reviews here, about the dialogue that doesn't sound real, too term- paperish. I have another favorite writer who often has his characters speak in iambic pentameter, and I've learned to get over it. The problem with Stillman here is certainly not his inability to write clever, piquant dialogue."I still consider myself a loyal adherent to the disco movement?""It's a movement?""That's like something out of the Nazis!""Every time you made love to me, you must have wanted to vomit!""No, no, no. You're beautiful. You don't have to be some sweaty horny hetero he-ape to admire and appreciate female beauty.""Of course it's formulaic. It's a formula!""It's true, Des, your mouth does look gay."And for those people who say, not without merit, that Stillman can't come up with a decent piece of dialogue that doesn't involve twelve adverbs and six past imperfect verbs, I submit one from this movie that consists of a single letter: "H!"What "Disco" has going for it, beyond all else, is the performances of its two stars. Beckinsale is incredibly beautiful here playing a wonderfully coy and slightly evil American vixen. She's a b-word, but with a heart of silver, not insensitive to the effect of her slings, who wins our heart despite herself. "One thing I've learned is people hate being criticized," she says at one point, as if surprised herself at the insight.Sevigny is even better as the heart of the film, a gentle character whose reaction shots sell us on the story more than anyone else's words. Whether she's with the dicey but delicious Des (Stillman regular Chris Eigeman) or the quietly intense, somewhat unstable Josh (Matt Keeslar), Sevigny keeps your sympathies centered around her character to a degree no other lead in a Stillman film ever has.That's about the highest praise I can offer "Last Days," that Sevigny and Beckinsale represent the best female performances in a Stillman film. It's not as well-balanced as "Barcelona" or "Metropolitan," the two other films of Stillman's I've seen (and some of whose characters pop up here.) The disco music is welcome though the period atmosphere is lacking, as I see this as a product entirely of the 1990s, the decade in which it was made. And the joining of Alice and Charlotte's stories with that of the fall of a club which is but isn't Studio 54 doesn't gel as well as it could have.But speaking as a Stillman fan, I love this film every bit as much as his other two 20th-century offerings, even if I can't recommend it as unreservedly. He was rushing to get this out, and it shows. But there's no shame in being a Stillman fan like I am when this is his weakest film.

I am old enough to remember the disco era and I can say that Whit Stillman captures one essential element of that particular time.It was fun. Oh yes. It was a dance floor party.Sure, it was cheesy and the clothes were a little ridiculous. Plus, it cut into live music in a bad way. Plus, it was pure studio product. Plus, in places like New York it fed into an unhealthy velvet rope scene.But, I'm here to tell you that in Baltimore, where I'm from, it was totally healthy, whoa-baby, party-down fun. I also think it was a major gay-straight bonding thing, which the movie is very clear about. Also, it kept America dancing through a time too many people where enthralled by Led Zeppelin and the Allman Brothers, who ruled the airwaves but who you could not dance to.Chloe Sevigny is perfectly cast here. She's a downtowner who comes across with a level head. She has a look. Prominent upper lip blonde with sharp chin, but still pretty. She's cool in every scene. The dudes in the movie are practically interchangeable. They are all Squareheads aspiring to hipness.Whit Stillman is the poet of hip New Yawkness and all of that is on display here. The young women are aspirants in the publishing industry. They look good and the movie dotes on them. They belong in nightclubs.I didn't live in Manhattan in the disco era. But it's cool to visit with people who did. And you won't get a better visit than in this movie.

I'm only giving it a "2" because there were a couple of marginally interesting bits of dialogue, & the female leads were outstanding. But overall...WOW does this movie suck! All the things everyone has written before apply: non-period clothes, sets & props; pretentious dialogue that came off as totally banal & unrealistic; REALLY horrible acting (love that they make such a big deal out of the little part by JENNIFER BEALS!!! WOW is she a terrible, terrible actress, excruciating even!! ... & what was up w/ that dude who ran the club, the one w/ the greasy hair & monkey face? Did he EVER work again after this??); but my biggest complaint, which I've had about "54" & other films set in clubs, & which other reviewers have mentioned here, is...WHY do they make clubs look so incredibly BORING???? The TV miniseries "Tales of the City," famously set in 1970s San Francisco, had several totally believable period scenes in clubs & bars, as have many other movies in which discos figure heavily into the backdrop (Carlito's Way comes to mind). Like other reviewers here, I'm wondering: have the people associated w/ this film ever actually BEEN to a club? I have seen the three films in the Stillman "trilogy" now & am totally perplexed as to why this guy was hailed in the 90s as such a genius? I've come across much wittier (& better-written) graffiti on the toilet wall of my favorite bar, & a zillion blogs. Was his father or brother in the movie business? Seriously, WHO thinks this is remarkable film-making? These are very well done student films, at best. You know it's a bad sign when, 45 minutes into a movie, you start READING A BOOK (exactly what I did, looking up at the movie on occasion, then going back to the book). Save your time, you will thank me.