The Last Days of Disco

Whit Stillman is an acquired taste and I hate that I just said something was an acquired taste. Let's clarify: he's got something of a cult following, although I don't know if his cult is completely head over heels in love with his work. I liked this alot but I don't know that most people would. I'm a fan of Stillman's dry wit, 70's disco and Kate Beckinsale so I rate this much higher than I think I would if it was missing all 3 of those ingredients and um, was basically another film entirely.

The fast-spoken dialogue is well-written. On a structural level, though, one might wish that the characterization had been as wonderfully eloquent as the exchanges between the otherwise memorable personalities. I rarely complain that a script is too carefully controlled but when the overall impression is one of constructedness (expositional trait descriptions invariably confirmed by character actions etc), it can become a bit of a problem. Watch it anyway, but only if you like your dramas talky.

I like Stillman's movies because of the absurdity underlying the lives and narratives he portrays. Everyone in this film is smart, literate, and good looking, but not a one of them have the first clue about where they're going or how their extensive educations will help them cope with real life. Yet in spite of (or maybe because of) their flailing about looking for direction, Stillman elicits empathy for them. Disco is his most successful effort at combining both those elements.

There's something curiously satisfying in the niche that Whit Stillman carved out for himself with his short time in film. Needs more Eigeman time & better character development, but I can't complain much.

The comedy in the dialogue is pretty sharp and the actors, particularly Beckinsale, do a great job of delivering it and molding their characters. It revolves around spoiled NYC rich kids, though, and I found that a bit distancing but it works. The only problem I had was that it didn't quite coalesce. There are some magnificent scenes, and while it comes together well enough the whole feels a bit less than the sum of its parts.

Stillman leaves a very idiosyncratic tone and touch in this film, with a very specific and interesting point of view on the nature of social dynamics. Beckinsale has not been better since, and the rest of the cast is pitch-perfect in its pathetism and witty delivery of the great screenplay.

The soundtrack was amazing.

If you know even the littlest bit about my interests, you know that this film was purposely designed in a lab just for me. I also like watching this and being like, "hey that person is from Silicon Valley! And that person is from House!"

A bit too verbose at times, but never dull. Sevigny's fantastic performance anchors the entire film.

As good as Metropolitan but not as good as Barcelona. As usual the dialogue was exquisite, though the Character development was rather slow. It wasn't till the end of the movie that I really started to enjoy the exchanges between characters. This might have also been attributed to my initial displeasure of Kate Beckinsale, but as her character developed she began to bother me less. Two things did become apparent: I'm not fond of Disco and Chole Sevigny reminds me an awful lot of Greta Gerwig.

Generally entertaining evocation of early 80s disco scene, and the silly, superficial personalities inhabiting it, though the screenplay never delves deeply into its shallow characters, so once all the story threads are established, the rest of the film takes on a repetitive tone (and awkwardly shoehorns in an underdeveloped criminal/corruption subplot). Excellent disco soundtrack and wonderful performances are definite plusses, with Beckinsale a standout as the icy social queen.

His weakest, but good performances, especially Sevigny, and looks good/dirdection is good

Whit Stillman's masterpiece. The best of his witty UHB conversations, with a phenomenal cast (including the immensably lovable Chris Eigeman) verbally sparring over an immaculate soundtrack of disco classics. Does a wonderful job of encapsulating a time and a place.

I'm not one to demand absolute verisimilitude, but, come on, Whit, put a little effort into it. At no point did this feel like anything other than people in 1998 pretending to dance to disco, and the fun, stylised dialogue became absurd in a bad way when occurring in the already comically fake nightclub where the music would be so loud you couldn't hear yourself think. I get the theme of nostalgia and anti-mainstream, but Whit Stillman using disco as a conduit for that is as silly as I expected.

Stillman’s dialogue and general skewering of pretentious wannabe-bourgeois types is utterly unparalleled. This one is probably my favourite, as it has the best cast (while still keeping the standouts like Eigeman) and slightly more of a plot, as well as some killer music.

Very strange movie like an episode of a Friends Tv Show which is directed by Woody Allen. I liked Chloë Sevigny.

Whit Stillman does it his way and his way makes for an interesting and enjoyably singular account of life and love in the 1980s. This causes me to realise that Jennifer Beals appears in the two best movies on this topic, the other being, of course, VAMPIRE'S KISS. The two Stillman films I've seen both had me wondering while watching whether I would like them by the time the credits rolled, but in both cases (the other being BARCELONA) I did.

Book this clown

i'm not sure anyone else could make a film so scathing, joyous and elegiac all at once. oscillating between the three is one thing, but stillman's mastery of tone is such that each is present at all times without stepping on the other. this complicated balance also manifests in the aesthetics which, in blending swoony nostalgia with shiny superficiality, seem to embody a fragile and deceptive ideal. for this reason it may even surpass METROPOLITAN as his finest film.

Boring Noah Baumbach clone of a film, which are boring enough. Characters are extremely thin and nothing ever really happens other than some bitchy dialog

Whit Stillman really gives his movies a special feeling, they have different subjects and frames but they all feel like they really relate between each other and are important, it's like a parallel universe. This movie is pure good script, the only thing is that sometimes it feels like is dragging the themes. Extra points for a very good Chloë Sevigny.

I liked this about as much as Metropolitan. The performances were slightly better and there's some pretty good lines, but it didn't leave me with as much to chew on. It is entertaining though, if a bit long. These aren't incredibly rich characters, but Stillman manages to make the viewer care about them. I did like how it inhabits an era without rubbing your face in it and making clever references. Great soundtrack if you love disco, a couple of obvious staples but some nice surprises too.

Boring intellectual conversations between cute college graduates set in a current nostalgic time zone. Does anyone care about this crap? Ok, i laughed once.

Os últimos embalos da disco estreava há 25 anos nos EUA. Gosto muito do Stillman, ele é mesmo o rei dos diálogos e aqui não é diferente. Uma coisa que achei curiosa foi a menção de epidemia de herpes e gonorreia, mas não de AIDS, se passa no início dos anos 80 e nesse período já tinha gente morrendo, mas talvez não fosse tão divulgado amplamente. Plus: Jesus, como odeio a personagem da Beckinsale, não conseguiria trabalhar ao lado dela, muito menos ir pra balada ou morar com ela. DVD OP

Stillman here takes on the zeitgeist of early 80s NYC, as roommates Alice (Chloe Sevigny) and Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale), working and seeking advancement at a publishing house, spend their evenings at the disco...but the disco itself is headed for trouble. There are also romantic complications to be found. It's Stillman's most flawed work, being both something of a mess story-wise (at times it feels like two films sandwiched together) and somewhat overlong; the dialogue and acting compensate.

I'm a sucker for high-brow, plotless, hedonistic, period films, but The Last Days of Disco is a failed attempt. While Chris Eigeman is a huge asset to the film, his presence alone is not enough to save it from the film's annoying banter--a constant undulation of witty one-liners and pseudo-intellectual tropes. I enjoy the fast-paced highfalutin dialog, but it's mostly pretty empty, like a bad episode of Gilmore Girls. Not awful, but not terribly interesting or creative either.

:)

Another fantastic Stillman entry. Basically the only thing I didn't like was Beckinsale singing Amazing Grace, because it's one of the most annoying songs ever.

2nd watch and I liked this a bit more. It's a clear continuation from Metropolis, which I might like more, but this has a stronger cast; especially Beckinsale is good in this kind of roles and it's a pity that she's just doing the genre stuff nowadays. Even though it's based on Stillman's own experience, it's difficult to think of discos as the background for all these intellectual types and their witty conversations. That contrast might also lead to false expectations; "Studio 54" this ain't.

I guess nothing can be as great Metropolitan because I saw it first, but this comes close. It's actually remarkably confident on a visual level (though this is not the end of Morvern Callar or the night club in Babel) The big problem might be that Stillman doesn't really know what to do with like, an actual plot and there sort of is one of those in this film. Probably his best ending, too.

Really entertaining flick to me. Lots of real characterizations that seem so true because they do such bad & stupid things. It's all melodrama but remains witty enough to not become boring. The disco subject matter is handled really well I think.. I had 0 interest in it and still do, but I can appreciate how it was something authentic and worthwhile to these people. Well, sort of but not really. That's the point I guess.

i loved the dialogues, especially the disneys' lady and the tramp criticism and the full era.