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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: August 25, 2008 Distributor: Criterion Director: · Whit Stillman Cast: · Chloe Sevigny · Kate Beckinsale · Chris Eigeman · Mackenzie Astin · Matt Keeslar · Robert Sean Leonard · Jennifer Beals Related Sites: · IMDb: The Last Days of Disco Grade: B+

Less about disco and more about a mindset and time in history, “The Last Days of Disco” provides a clever look at young, moderately educated, pretentious and insecure New York straw heads, as they constantly vacillate on opinions and desires based on broader social maintenance of an image. In inadvertent, the film captures much of the cultural motivation behind aggressive post-disco hatred, as, unlike other musical impetus with implicit political motivations, disco was little more than a stab at prideful, vapid behaviour, posturing and aesthetics first, much like the latter years of this decade. Characters mask honest opinions and open communication in favour of glib fads and a desire mainly to fit in whilst denying assimilation, as outlined brilliantly in the scene where Alice becomes affronted by the implication that all disco girls drink vodka tonics, ordering a whiskey sour instead.

Rather simply, the story follows the opinionated but repressed Alice (Chloe Sevigny), and the more abrasive and manipulative Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale), two publishing house assistants, as they toil with getting their own apartment during routine visits to a trendy club, in the early eighties. Alice likes Jimmy (Mackenzie Astin), an advertising rep, but settles for Tom (Robert Sean Leonard) when Charlotte convincers her that advertisers are passé, secretly taking the ginger boy for herself. Taking additional advice from Charlotte, Alice puts on her best slut routine, professing a sexual interest in Scrooge McDuck, eventually getting herpes and gonorrhea from Tom while losing her virginity.

What proves interesting here is not the story of an insecure girl making bad decisions at the advice of her bitchy “friend”, but that there aren’t huge emotional confrontations. Sure, Alice gives a teary “I’m moving out” speech to her roommate after the VD issue is revealed in a crowd, but their dissolution and feelings are more assumed than spoken, which is perhaps the charm of it all.

A secondary storyline involving tax evasion and money laundering at the disco comes into play in the latter portion of the film, with Des (Chris Eigeman) getting caught in the middle of a conspiracy with undercover agents and assistant district attorney named Josh (Matt Keeslar), who incidentally, becomes a romantic interest for Alice.

In addition to Des’ professing of homosexual inclinations as a means of breaking up with women to garner sympathy, “Last Days of Disco” offers up a series of wry but shoal insights on “Lady and the Tramp” and the Shakespeare’s assertion “to thine own self be true”. It’s all highly amusing due to its undergraduate nature, wherein one announces their seeming wisdom with shallow tidbits and weak observations.

Such is the tone of the film, however, and resultantly, where it derives its strength and virtue, as our main investment is with the character of Alice, whom we know is aware of the stupidity of it all, just needing the confidence to say it. While imperfect and perhaps not quite a modern classic, this portrait of the death of an era delivers a wonderful portrait of a cultural subsection and ideologue.

Criterion offers up a newly restored high definition transfer of the film, supervised and approved by director Wilt Stillman, which benefits from colour correction, clarifying features and attention to a vintage feel. There are instances of noise in particularly bright scenes, and some lighting inconsistencies result in frequent grain, but this is the best quality transfer of the film there is out there.

Audio commentary with Whit Stillman, Chris Eigeman and Chloe Sevigny comes with many anecdotes on production and narrative decisions, with a story about Winona Ryder being offered the Alice role and Ben Affleck’s interest in Chris Eigeman’s role. Amongst other things, we learn that Whit Stillman claims to be interested in women, while he discusses the many clubs he went to in his youth, finding some perverse joy in crowding into a sweaty room with a bunch of vacuous strangers in overpriced costumes.

Commentary is included on the few deleted scenes as well, which feature a ledger kept by Des and additional coverage of his apartment.

In addition to the theatrical trailer and still images with captions, the original “making of” featurette is included, with brief interviews and shooting footage. No effort was made to restore these supplements.

Other features include an audio recording of Stillman reading a chapter from his book “The Last Days of Disco, with Cocktails at Petrossian Afterwards”, which is an epilogue with Jimmy Steinman discussing his feelings for Des and Alice, as he tackles a new career in Spain. This is marginally more interesting than the dreadful, panegyric essay by novelist David Schickler, which takes “douche bag” to an entirely new level.