The Last Days of Disco (1998)

Whit Stillman films are known for being chock-full of smart, snappy dialogue and little else, and The Last Days of Disco tinkers with that formula only slightly. The third installment of Stillman's "Yuppie" trilogy, along with Metropolitan and Barcelona, finds the same character types discussing the same issues, although this time the setting is the dawning Reagan years when disco is going down for the count. Stillman uses the closing of a disco palace to delve into the drug and sex themes and symbolize the end of an era, and his main obstacle this time around is that his characters are all designed to be rather unlikable, which is a big hurdle to overcome. Kate Beckinsale, American accent in tow, is one of the more disagreeable women to grace the screen but she delivers some of the best lines in the film. Chloe Sevigny, on hand as the moral center, tries to garnish what sympathy the audience is willing to give but can't quite muster it. Stillman regular Christopher Eigeman more or less reprises his roles from the earlier films, but he too has some terrific one-liners. Even those who appear to be above the fray, like MacKenzie Astin and Robert Sean Leonard have their downsides. Everyone in this film seems way too intellectual to be true, which doesn't help matters much, but Stillman is so good at manipulating the situations that their flaws actually become hypnotic. In perhaps one of the subtlest ways imaginable, each character represents the death of disco. Surprisingly for a Stillman film, it's a bit of a downer. However, the soundtrack alone is enough to make one wistful for the days of mirror balls. ~ Dan Friedman, All Movie Guide