Actually, Stillman got some things wrong, and maybe he did so on purpose. I just fell in love with this film and its characters, characters who could only exist as they did and together in that very late disco period. Although, aesthetically and visually Whitman's film doesn't quite ring true clothing looks too 90s and they'd never be able to talk so much in a club the dialogue is fresh and chances are you'll be grinning from here to Bolivia when the 'Love Train' rolls through the subway at the end.Įxcept my memory lane was in Dallas, not New York City. A bit like Friends, only without dumb Joey and flaky Phoebe. Whitman's wildly self-indulgent and witty script (`Do you think the neurological effects of caffeine are similar to that of cocaine?') makes them impossible to ignore and eventually their awfulness becomes disturbingly compelling. In the main these are disagreeable people, but as much as you urge yourself to loathe them, you can't quite do it. The `verbal' action between this set of intellectual folk takes place at a ludicrous dance palace in the very early 80s, with the `disco movement' decaying and Reagan's soul-devouring materialism taking hold. Bitchy Charlotte - `In physical terms, I'm cuter than you, but you're much nicer than I am,' - and Alice fall in with a parade of self-absorbed fellows in pullovers and drab ties. This New York yarn centres on publishing assistants Charlotte (flawless snotty American accent by Kate Beckinsale) and her best friend/biggest rival Alice (Chloe Sevigny). No, not a rehash of Boogie Nights, but the third instalment, following Metropolitan and Barcelona, of Whitman's `yuppie' odyssey. `You have no idea what men think about women's breasts,' womaniser Des McGrath (Christopher Eigeman) pleads. If you like interesting, though arch, dialogue and well-constructed characters, I suggest this fantastic film to you.

Like the films of Wes Anderson, Whit Stillman's movies are a little precious. The dialogue, which I find scintillating, grates on the ears of others. As much as I love Last Days of Disco, I think it is nevertheless an acquired taste. It's nice to have a film display this belief and show the disco movement its due credit. One of the nice points made subtly by Last Days is that, in a sense, discotheques were Utopian communities at night where the Upper East Side WASPS danced next to (gasp!) blacks and gay men! The climate of the discos was accepting of people of all colors and sexual orientations. We continue to feel the effects of disco and are beginning to accept it as a viable musical outlet. Yes, there was a lot of garbage-as there is with any musical movement-but the amount of innovation that took place during the years of 1976-1980 is impressive. For all the truck disco has been given over the years, it really was a remarkable period of music.

Third, Last Days of Disco is a paean to that danceable sound. They can and should change from time to time, for such is life. Minor characters in a film need not remain static. I like movies that acknowledge that they're concerned with a certain number of characters and regard everyone else as incidental. In doing this, characters will show up unexpectedly (like Charlotte and Alice's roommate) and disappear just as quickly. It focuses, more or less, on Charlotte and Alice but involves their friends, acquaintances, and lovers as well. Second, there's the narrative style itself. They're not great people but you can't hate them. They're all vaguely reminiscent of college-educated adults in their early 20s: smart and funny but still occasionally mean and prone to bouts of foolish behavior. No one is entirely likable nor is anyone a clear cut bad guy. Yes, the film likes its characters, but it is not above acknowledging their inadequacies. As such, it should be reprehensible, right? I mean, didn't American Psycho set us straight on yuppie-dom? Well, evidently not, because Last Days of Disco is a wonderful achievement for a number of reasons. In other words, this engaging, and entertaining, film is an anthropological study of a certain subtype of human-being: WASPy disco dancers from the early 1980s. More importantly, like Metropolitan, Last Days is also about group dynamic in the late 20th century. Like his first film, Metropolitan, Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco is about young, white kids from an upper middle-class background with a talent for witty repartee and intelligent conversation.

The last days of disco