Thoughts on The Last Days of Disco

 

via Giphy/Courtesy Focus Features

"Alice, one thing I've noticed is that people hate being criticized. Everyone hates that. It's one of the great truths of human nature. I think it's why my parents got divorced. I'm sorry, it's just that you're so teriffic, it makes me sick to think you might get in that terrible situation again where everybody hated you."
"Hated me?"
"You're wonderful. Maybe, in physical terms, I'm a little cuter than you. But you should be much more popular than I am. It'd be such a shame if what happened in college repeated itself."

I now must see every movie by writer-director-producer Whit Stillman. Metropolitan was originally meant to be part of The Movies of 1990, but got dropped because I ran out of time. The exchange I included, with Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale) being cruel to Alice (Chloë Sevigny) in the guise of giving social pointers, was when I knew that I could love The Last Days of Disco. I would have dialogue to cherish and the anticipation of waiting for Charlotte to be put in her place. Sevigny and Beckinsale are two actresses I've long taken for granted, which made watching Disco such a thrill. I wanted to hear what Charlotte would say next. I wanted to see which man Alice was going to end up with, even if none of them seemed completely worthy of her.

"There's something really sexy about Scrooge McDuck."

Ultimately, my biggest problem with Disco was that the leading men -- club manager Des (Chris Eigeman), low-level adman Jimmy (Mackenzie Astin), manic assistant district attorney Josh (Matt Keeslar) and Tom (Robert Sean Leonard), who gives Alice both gonnorhea and herpes and reunites with his ex -- were all so unappealing. It felt like we spent the most time with the least desirable of the men, Des, who also carried the subplot that something was going to give when it came to himself, Bernie (David Thornton) and for disco itself. (Des also has a couple scenes with Jennifer Beals that felt like they were in service of a non-existent punchline.) For the second time in 1998, intentionally or not, a movie clearly differentiated itself from a rival. Disco was more about a feeling than events and it took place in the early 1980s. In your face, 54!

"When all is said and done, eavesdropping on the glib conversations of witty urbanites can be a pleasant diversion, but after so much volubility, you might find yourself wishing that they would all just shut up and dance."

-- Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post

Let's give a shoutout to John Carrafa, whose career has included dancing for Twyla Tharp, getting a Tony nomination for Urinetown and doing a whole lot of TV work. In addition to 51 episodes of Nashville, his prominent choreography credits include Big Love, Empire, Only Murders in the Building, The Gilded Age and Westworld. Carrafa's work in Disco is part of what makes the movie so great. I didn't feel like I was watching star turns on the dance floor. I didn't feel like I was had to think, "Oh, Josh is such a great dancer, he should totally be with Alice." I could make my own decisions and along the way, savor the storytelling and especially the beautifully written and performed dialogue. I actually treasure the lines for their escalation, how they fit into The Last Days of Disco as a whole, slightly more than on their own. Like this sorta moral:

"Disco will never be over. It'll always live in our minds and hearts. Something like this, that was this big and this important and this great, will never die. Oh, for a few years, maybe many, it'll be considered passe, ridiculous. It'll be misrepresented and caricatured and sneered at or, worse, completely ignored. People will laugh about John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, white polyester suits and platform shoes and going like this. *does the Saturday Night Fever pose* But we had nothing to do with those things and still loved disco. Those who didn't understand will never understand. Disco was much more and much better than all that. Disco was too great, and too much fun, to be gone forever. It's got to come back someday. I just hope it will be in our own lifetimes. ... Sorry, I've got a job interview this afternoon and I'm trying to get revved up. But most of what I said, I, uh, believe."

Recommended.

Thoughts:

-- "Do you know how (investigating agents) are coming in? ... They're coming in as ad agency clients."

-- Box Office: Grossing $3 million on an $8 million budget, this had a limited release and came in at No. 169 for 1998.

-- Awards Watch: La India's cover of "I Love the Nightlife" received an ALMA nomination, but lost to "I Want to Spend My Lifetime Loving You" from The Mask of Zorro.

-- Critic's Corner, the movie: "Sincerely nostalgic without campiness," Janet Maslin wrote. Roger Ebert: "Sweet, fond and a little sad ... we realize that is wasn't disco that was so special, but youth." "(It) almost makes you believe that those sweaty, snobbish and overcrowded clubs might have been fun," observed Kenneth Turan. Lisa Schwarzbaum: "(There was a) thrill of being a part of the trendy scene, however vacant and soul-deadening revisionist cultural history (and upcoming films like Velvet Goldmine and 54) reminds us the scene turned out to be."

-- Critic's Corner, Sevigny and Beckinsale: "Neither seems quite capable of 'stealing' a picture, even though the script gives them every opportunity," Andrew Sarris wrote in The New York Observer. Beckinsale and Eigeman got singled out for their tart tongues by Peter Travers, Rolling Stone.

-- "Before leaving the D.A.'s office, I like at least once the chance to use the expression, 'Book this clown.'"

-- Memorable Music: The score is now 17-14, favoring non-original songs. I opted for discipline and only chose five memorable selections from the soundtrack: "Doctor's Orders," "More, More, More," "Good Times," "Shame" and "Love Train." Todd McCarthy, Variety, thought the "Love Train" sequence was the only one "that revives the disco days with thrilling results ... it has the sort of mindless unity and sensual abandon lacking till then, and shows what the film could have been."

-- Hey, It's ...!: Jaid Barrymore, Michael Weatherly, Mark McKinner and George Plimpton.

-- Yes, I will watch 54, although it's looking like it will be at the end of the viewing schedule, not in August.

-- "(after catching Bernie with drugs) Book this clown."

-- Next: Hope Floats. On deck: A Perfect Murder.