The Last Days of Disco (DVD, 1998)

Whit Stillman's Metropolitan may be one of the best movies ever made. Some would argue that his sophomore effort, BARCELONA is unwatchable. While that may be a little harsh, it is clearly not in the league with its predecessor. However, Stillman comes back strong with The Last Days of Disco (1998), a film that manages to both be All About Disco Music and Not about Disco Music at the same time. This film includes Stillman regular Christopher Eigeman in yet another strong role, but the big stars are Chloe Sevigny, who was on her way up in 1998, and Kate Beckinsale, who was still considered an English Accent kind of girl.

These last two join a third roommate (played by Tara Subkoff) in the quintessential 1980s postgraduate New York experience, sharing an awkward apartment and trying to get ahead in the publishing business. Did I mention that at least one of these girls is the roommate from heck?

Meanwhile, their crowd loosely includes a struggling ad guy, a freshly minted US Attorney, an environmental lawyer (Robert Sean Leonard) who collects Scrooge McDuck comics, and an underling at "The Club" played by Eigeman. Whether or not they "furiously pair off" as one character complains, depends on who is trying and who is getting lucky. This film suffered slightly from being released at the same time as "54", another disco movie, but there is little beyond the titles and their time frames to confuse the two.

Stillman tucks in a nice cameo for many of the cast and characters from METROPOLITAN, as well as for several others (George Plimpton, Jaid Barrymore). He also manages to offer several unexpected sociological explanations of Walt Disney films. Plot is more important than in his earlier films, but dialogue is still the real star.

But there is the music, too. By the time this film came out, Disco was beginning to shed a little of its backlash stigma and was edging back towards acceptability. Whether or not you liked the Disco sound, you will love the closing scene as an entire subway train grooves to the O'Jays' LOVE TRAIN.

This is one to see eventually, if not the Top of the List.