The Last Days of Disco Review
by Andrew Hall (ahall AT bizave DOT com)May 23rd, 1998
The trailer showing in mainstream theaters for "The Last Days of Disco" likens it to a Hollywood relationship film set in the disco era, nostalgic in the spirit of "Boogie Nights" without the porn. But Whit Stillman's films are dialogue and character heavy and plot thin, more appropriate for the art house crowd than for mainstream audiences. Mainstream moviegoers seeing the trailer for "The Last Days of Disco" in are probably going to be expecting something else.
The story, such as it is, follows the disco exploits of a bunch of white ivy league graduates working in Manhattan in the early 80's. The focus is on co-workers Alice (Chloe Sevigny) and Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale from "Cold Comfort Farm"), who go to the discos together. Alice and Charlotte get involved with men, talk, sleep with some of them, and talk some more, as disco is slowly dying around them. Some complications set in at their favorite disco, and relationship entanglements naturally occur among the young people.
The dialogue is above-average and occasionally funny. The numerous men are fairly colorful characters, but Stillman gives the women slightly more attention. Alice and Charlotte are well-drawn female characters - a rarity in American film. Alice is the complex "nice girl" we identify with and root for; Charlotte is the self-absorbed bitch whose flimsy know-it-all philosophies we laugh at.
The film does kind of drag slightly in parts. It's hard to keep a film moving with so many characters. Other filmmakers might have focused more attention on Alice, making the film "her story", but here she is just one of the main characters, and we don't get to know her quite as well as we want to. The dialogue is occasionally clever - the scene with people discussing the philosophical meaning of the Disney film "The Lady and the Tramp" is almost classic - but it's not clever often enough, and the film isn't as funny as it begs to be.
Of course, the disco angle *does* add some nostalgia to the film, so if anything see it if you like the period music. If you've never heard of Whit Stillman, you might rent "Barcelona" first to see if this kind of dialogue-heavy film appeals to you.
Andrew
(for more information see http://us.imdb.com/Title?Last+Days+of+Disco,+The+(1998) )
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