The Last Days of Disco Poster

The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Comedy | Music 
Rayting:   6.7/10 12.3K votes
Country: USA
Language: English
Release date: 12 June 1998

Story of two female Manhattan book editors fresh out of college, both finding love and themselves while frequenting the local disco.

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User Reviews

ringroadcentral 25 May 2005

I was wondering what a young person watching this film ,in say 2030, might glean about disco from watching this turgid film. They might surmise that disco was incredibly dull,frequented by boring individuals with no redeemable features to their characters ( there was hope for the Chloe character), with clothes and music as bland as the 90s,and maybe there was some connection with disco and going to Harvard.

I thought Studio 54 had plumbed the depths shallow, superficial films about disco- this went one step further, and it was all the way down. ( By the way, Boogie Nights and Summer of Sam portrayed disco beautifully).

There were shreds of a plot- (sort of like St Elmo's fire but not; far less interesting) and and there was a problem with the editing -so one had to guess what the time intervals were between various "events"- .And unfortunately, you just didn't care one or another about the characters; they were fairly unconvincing, in fact.Fairly interesting dialogues, but nothing you haven't heard before in a film or indeed on a college campus ( if you were unlucky).

And what arrogance to think that disco's role was to be a somewhat exotic backdrop for these uninteresting neurotics. This film was so bad: it was empty, bland; you didn;t get a feel of late 1970s society at all, though some "Disco sucks" footage was crammed in.

I stayed with this film: cos I was thinking this has got to get better and I was amazed that a film could be so bad.

This was about a group of lame, empty, self-obsessed Yuppies, whose horrible dancing was the most entertaining thing in the movie, and who I suspect were responsible in their own sweet way for the demise of disco ( why would you go to dance disco in a tie and suit?)

bob the moo 4 January 2002

Fmovies: In the early 80's a group of friends interact around a Manhattan disco, desperate to climb the local social ladder. With an investigation in the disco's financial dealings and the end of disco approaching the friends attempt to carry on as normal.

Director Whit Stillman tends to go for comedies that look inward and have strong comedic dialogue that follow social observations and comment on different cultures and periods. However plot is never one of his major concerns and here is no different. The story here is less important that the period of disco which is the real focus. This may be a bit frustrating to some as the story doesn't seeming to have any one direction. However the characters and the dialogue will generally hold the interest sufficiently. Some of the script is a bit weak and the characters occasionally are a bit too unsympathetic but for the majority the sharp script compliments the characters.

The performances are good throughout - these socialites are not people I'd ever like to meet but they are funny from a distance. There is much to like here if you like this type of humour. But the story is almost non-existent and this is a slight problem.

Overall a clever, funny look at the life of a couple of party girls around the time disco started to suck. Not to everyone's taste and what's that credit sequence ending about? - is it a bit of fun or is it trying to say something?

Rubicon-6 10 May 1999

This movie reminds me of a junior college play--self-conscious acting, forced dialogue, and tired sets. I don't mind a movie with no plot, but I need something to keep me interested--which this film does not deliver.

The acting is uniformly stiff. Chloe Sevigny's lack of effort (or skill) makes her supposedly educated character seem slow-witted. She appears to have learned how to act by watching local-cable auto dealer commercials ("Bill Smith Ford is ready to deal (smile wanly at camera)"). The supporting cast seems to be reading off cue cards at times, highlighted by an embarrassing cameo from Jennifer Beals. Only Kate Beckinsale occasionally rises above the mediocrity with a crisply acted scene.

I suppose there are people who talk the way these characters do, but I've never met them. Not even the most pompous pseudo-intellectuals I've come across consistently use such stilted syntax. This could be forgiven if the words were compelling. Unfortunately, 95% of the dialogue is used to set up the 5% that is interesting. There are flashes of good writing, but the setups are so long that the jokes fall flat.

The most disappointing thing about the movie is the lack of visual flair. The characters try to elevate disco to cosmic meaning, but the film makes the inside of the club look dull. Whit Stillman trots out a man painted silver every time he needs to make the club look glamorous. The clothing and hairstyles seem to be out of place as well. Nothing on the screen is as outrageous and fun as the soundtrack.

lemon993 10 June 2004

The Last Days of Disco fmovies. Chloe Sevigny, the independent film princess, lands in the great emerald city by the sea. The final moments of the disco period are about to expire and she must dispose of her wickedly evil roommate, Kate Beckinsale. The disco is the epicenter of the film, the "Oz" if you will, where the wizard appears to control the music and lights of the city. Whit Stillman produces movies as often as the Olympics come around, but I like the tone he achieves here. Check-out the eighties publishing world depicted in the film. What's missing? No computers. The office seems less cluttered and more soothing to the creative spirit. There's an off-the-cuff reference to J.D. Salinger and his different works. There are many such random references scattered through the frames of the film. The director keeps you on your toes. The highlight of the film arrives on an iron horse by means of an impromptu dance sequence. The extemporaneous dance number spills out onto the subway platform and beyond the station. Nice touch.

move_over_fatso 30 December 2005

1) There is no action in this movie. If you need *something*, then avoid this movie like the plague. And while one may think to themself, "dayam, those actresses look fine", there are no gratuitous skin shots. Its not a movie like "Honey", where you turn off the volume and just stare at Jessica Alba.

2) Its not really about the End of Disco (despite the title). The soon to be dead Disco era is a BACKDROP for the theme of the movie. Casablanca was not about WW II. It was a romance movie, and the War was a backdrop. No one bitches about the authenticity of the airplanes, uniforms, historical details of the politics or legal procedures, or portrayal of the Moroccan culture. Yes, I wish the filmmaker was a bit more zealous about period dress and music. Oh well. And while there are reminiscent touches, its not a movie who's focus is dedicated to capturing the Disco period. If what you want is an homage to Disco, then you won't like this movie.

3) It IS a "Coming of Age" movie. It is about vapid, just-out-of-college Americans starting out in the real world. The movie mostly skewers them, but I can't help but feel a bit of nostalgia and loss for a period of life that will never come back to me (early twentysomething). I strongly suggest you avoid the movie if you're under 35. You do not need to have lived through the disco period to appreciate the movie, but you do need to be an old fogey. Definitely a movie for adults, in the non-NC17 way.

4) The actors put on superlative performances. They were portraying vapid, witless, bland, soon to be full-blown yuppies. The time period is perfect for reflecting on the contrast of soon-to-be-over perceptions of life and the world from youth to early adulthood. You can almost see their worldview evolve within the one(?) year time period of the movie. There's nothing sucky about the acting. The characters are mostly sucky people; that's why they seem wooden, vapid, and lame. (And Kate Beckinsale does an AWESOME American accent; because she's British, and there isn't a hint of her native tongue.) Yes, their dancing seems lame, because the general public are generally lame dancers. People did not break out like John Travolta on the dance floor every night. Its not a movie about dancing.

5) One should be appreciating the dialogue from a detached distance, and be struck by its wit and humor. Not living through these people in a first person perspective. This is for people who can appreciate reading James Joyce, Harold Pinter, or Evelyn Waugh, or any great novelist/playwright who doesn't beat you over the head (usually with a voice-over) with the meaning of every aspect of a scene. (Apologies if these writers aren't good examples; I'm having a problem recalling an ideal choice.) If the movie seems to drift and be aimless, its because life is not a continuous series of epiphanies, and this is not a typical Hollywood feature. If you need something more obvious, you WON'T like this movie.

Its actually a bit hard to like this movie, but I do. I have met people who have lived through the Disco era and waxed poetic like Josh towards the end of the movie. They're actually yearning for the illusions of their youth; which is kind of what the movie is about.

trpdean 25 February 2002

Well, before you see this, ask yourself if you either: a) want to engorge yourself with lengthy witty banter, or b) see a Wasp-y version of the weaving of people in and out of relationships like Seinfeld or Woody Allen but with a bigger cast? If your answer is yes, this is your movie. If not, not.

This movie is FAR more like Stillman's others (Metropolitan and Barcelona) than like anything you've seen about disco - which is simply the background. I was surprised that these yuppie characters were so freely admitted to Studio 54 (the set of the film), but perhaps it indicates disco's waning popularity by the early 1980s.

I enjoyed it very much - but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

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