The Last Days of Disco (1998) / Comedy-Drama

MPAA Rated: R for some elements involving sexuality and drugs
Running Time: 113 min.

Cast: Chloe Sevigny, Kate Beckinsale, Christopher Eigeman, Matthew Keeslar, MacKenzie Astin
Director: Whit Stillman
Screenplay: Whit Stillman
Review published December 14, 1998

In the early 80s, a discotheque breaths it's last breaths as the coming of the yuppie 80s emerges. Drugs, sex and individualism make way for "just say no", STDs, and conforming to get ahead. In this disco, a group of friends socialize with each other, and go from relationship to relationship trying to find something in their vacuous lives with meaning.

It must have sounded much better on paper than the execution shown here. Whit Stillman, writer-director of the equally annoying yuppie films METROPOLITAN and BARCELONA, delivers another taste of his intellectual masturbation, whereby all of the characters are far too clever to be believable, making observations on everything banal like Uncle Scrooge to LADY AND THE TRAMP. The storyline does maintain interest, but ultimately the film fails due to the pomposity of the smarmy and unrealistic characters, the pseudo-intellectual asides of the script, and the amateurish and unappealing actors. This film will most likely appeal only to yuppie intellectuals or disco-freaks, but all others will find the characters too unappealing and the storyline too unimportant to really care about.

Qwipster's rating:

©1998 Vince Leo