The Last Days Of Disco

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forgettable

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(2 votes)

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Director/Writer: Whit Stillman
Cinematographer: John Thomas
Starring: Chloë Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale
Studio/Run Time: Castle Rock Entertainment, 113 mins.

Whitewashed disco comedy as tasteful as a polyester suit

Near the end of this woefully ahistorical 1998 comedy about yuppies hooking up at an opulent disco, one guy rants: “Disco was too great, and too much fun to be gone forever! It’s got to come back someday. I just hope it will be in our own lifetimes.” Out of print for a decade, and recently restored by Criterion, the film follows two shallow roommates, Alice and Charlotte (Sevigny and Beckinsale), as they listlessly shake their groove things with other uptight professionals in the early ’80s. In Stillman’s envisioning of this seedy decade, New York was already like an episode of Friends: squeaky clean subways and back alleys; whitewashed, unfunny characters; totally bereft of the gay Latinos and African-Americans that made disco the vital and liberating melting pot it actually was. While disco’s musical renaissance has thankfully arrived (see LCD Soundsystem, The Gossip), this slight effort deserved to stay gone.

Watch the trailer for The Last Days of Disco:

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5 Comments

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By Robert Davis on September 3, 2009

Oh, Andy, you break my heart. I've been itching for Whit Stillman to make another movie for a long time -- it's been eleven years since The Last Days of Disco. True, his memory of the era is white, but I think it's personal, not exhaustive or broadly historical. It's not really musical, either. And I can't think of another filmmaker who really seems to care so much about these upwardly mobile white guys and girls (in all three of his movies), even while recognizing the limits of their pop/business psychology or the naivete of their post-college social circles.

I feel like watching this -- or maybe Barcelona -- again right now.

By Michael Dunaway on September 5, 2009

I've got to go with Rob on this one. In fact, i don't think this movie is about disco at all. And while I don't think it's his best, I think Whitman's B-game still beats most directors' A-games.

By ebdukes on September 13, 2009

Mr. Beta doesn't get it. This movie has almost nothing to do with disco..that's the backdrop. It's about people's endless search to form bonds and communicate in a meaningful way. Stillman's dialogue, to that end, continues to be among the best on screen at any time. The deconstruction of Disney's "Lady and the Tramp" is just priceless; the debate on Yuppies is downright hysterical, and the last two minutes (including end credits) in the NYC subway is absolutely magical.

Mr Beta obviously was not looking at the dance floor in the movie. All the types that he claims were absent are there. The only thing untrue,is that, there would have been 4 times as many people in the club as depicted.

By Will Hinton on September 17, 2009

Why would Paste have someone review a movie who so obviously doesn't get the movie???

By John on September 24, 2009

The fact that the user rating is 85, compared to the Paste rating of 33, tells you that the so-called reviewer is in over his head (not to mention that all comments so far -- including mine -- are positive). This is a hilarious, very droll, film. Maybe Beta doesn't do "droll". Maybe he doesn't find Scrooge McDuck sexy. And yes, now I want to watch this film again. RIGHT NOW! But first I'll watch Metropolitan and then Barcelona.