Rating: 
Summary: Not Whit Stillman's best
Review: If you want to truly appreciate writer-director Whit Stillman's work, buy 'Metropolitan' or 'Barcelona.' (Regrettably, neither is yet on DVD.) 'Last Days of Disco' does have some of the clever dialog and observation as those other films, but it suffers from some anonymous and uninspired acting including Chloe Sevingny's strange wooden style and male characters who all look and act alike. Chris Eigeman, who is SO great in the other two films, is sort of miscast here.
Rating: 
Summary: Some good moments in a dull, overlong film.
Review: The night life/love life of a group of Manhattan yuppies in the "early 1980s."See them whining at work! Hear them whining about their love lives! Feel their pain as they whine about the lack of affordable housing in Manhattan! Some clever but shallow dialogue. Some minor but unoriginal insights. Slick production values. The scenes accurately recreate early 1980s Manhattan (when I worked there). But the dialogue and characters are so unbearably shallow, it's not worth wading through the film's nearly 2 hours for those few good moments.
Rating:
Summary: losing patience with this brand of brilliance.
Review: call me stupid, but i'm really confused. i'm trying to figure out how this movie passes for "smartly written dialogue" or "character-driven". actually, the latter is true; the great tragedy of this movie is that it tries to balance itself on these throwaway depictions of competitive meaninglessness. the character of charlotte (kate beckinsale in a wasted if solid performance) was particularly one-dimensional. i really wanted to lift her shirt to see if there was a bitchy-comment string to pull. p.s. characters, even those that you're *supposed* to loathe, should be multifaceted. it's no great feat of screenwriting to create "the boring yuppie"; anyone over 25 with a working pen can do that. and another thing: unique is NOT a synonym for good. while it is refreshing to step away from the kneejerk predictability of traditional hollywood fare, not all forays into novelty are fruitful. this movie is particularly guilty of trying to stand on idiosyncrasy over substance. a quick turn to the acting: i thought it was impeccable, and it's the only reason i gave this film any stars. each actor plays their role to the hilt. i thought it was great that these actors, who are normally given so much more to work with, were able to play relentlessly lame characters so convincingly. i never thought i'd be bored watching chloe sevigny, but she did it, and i think that's a testament to her abilities. in short, though this film makes some short stabs at humor and irony, it's a bit too navel-gazing for my tastes. i prefer movies slightly less self-conscious, accurately and multi-dimensionally drawn, and to the point. hey, that makes me predictable! ironic twist at end of review!
Rating: 
Summary: Whit Stillman is still the man
Review: Can this movie be any better? Whit Stillman is the genius director behind this great film. The story line has so many twists and turns that you could watch it many times and still not see it all. I am also a huge Chloe Sevigny fan and she deserved an Oscar. She was perfectly cast as Alice, the woman who changed her image from kindergarten teacher to wild child. If you watch this movie and enjoy it, I would throughly recommend Metropolitan and Barcelona, Whit Stillman's early films. The Last Days of Disco is actually the middle movie in his "trilogy"(Metropolitan, Last Days, Barcelona). Metropolitan is his best work, but the Last Days is a wonderful and energetic film that no one (especially those of the disco era) should miss!
Rating: 
Summary: Even better than I expected...
Review: I don't know what I expected when I first saw The Last Days of Disco - even though I knew it was a Whit Stillman film, I still couldn't quite picture his take on the disco scene in NYC. What I found was a delightful, witty, perfectly cast, well acted movie populated by familiar - yet not dull or overused - 'types' and peppered with smart, hilarious and revealing dialogue. I don't want to give too much of the plot away - as it's too much fun to watch it unfold for yourself - although I will say that the perspective on life for two recent college grads as they enter the publishing world in NYC is quite realistic and amusing in many ways - the female 'friend' who shows her 'friendship' with back-handed compliments/insults, the cheap railroad apartment, and so on. For me, the real revelation was Sevigny. I'd seen her before, but her role in this movie is marvelous. You actually SEE her transformation from an insecure 'sidekick' to her not-so-friendly 'friend' to a confident, secure and independent woman throughout the course of the film - it's a subtle yet vivid change, and by the end she even looks different. I highly recommend this movie, both because of it's witty dialogue, interesting characters and fun peek back into the '80s, but also for the performances by Sevigny and Beckinsale, who are terrific in their respective roles. I've already recommended this movie to all of my friends, and they, too, have enjoyed it, although many, at first, confused it with the one about Studio 54. Please don't make that mistake! This is a great movie, and you shouldn't miss it!
Rating:
Summary: This movie is not for everyone
Review: The more movies I see, the more I am drawn back to this movie and the others in its series (Metropolitan, Barcelona). I understand that many people will not like this movie for several reasons: they might find the dialogue absurdly pretentious (is the acting bad, or is it the script, after all does anyone really talk like this?), the plot impenetrable (primarily because it doesn't fit any of the standard formulae), and there are no clues to tell you how to feel at certain points (understandably VERY confusing and therefore frightening to some). All of these qualities will either make the movie or break it for you. For me, it makes it one of my favorite movies of all time.
Rating:
Summary: When they talk of Herpes we're all thinking AIDS
Review: "The Last Days of Disco" recalls a specific time - the very early 1980's. The video opens with a shot of two young women walking down the street. The shot is framed in such a way that you only see the bottom half of their legs. It's a shot that immediately recalls the disco-era classic, "Saturday Night Fever" with it's similar opening - clearly Whit Stillman (who wrote and directed) knows what he's doing. The film is a sort of coming-of-age story of two book publishing assistants - Alice (well played by Chloe Sevigny who can be seen in the current "Boys Don't Cry") and Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale). Looking to expand their social circle, they frequent a hard-to-get-into nightclub (not mentioned but obviously patterned after New York's famed Studio 54). The more experienced Charlotte ("Maybe in physical terms I'm cuter than you - but you should be much more popular than I am") gives Alice lots of advice - like how she should always try and throw the word "sexy" into her conversation or how Harvard guys can be amazing creeps. She talks of the "tremendous importance of group social life" and claims to oppose "all this ferocious pairing off". She's a bit of a phony, however, which we (like Alice) come to find out. But Stillman rises above making crass judgements about her, he doesn't make fun of her - he essentially likes her, as he does all the characters. This includes Des, whose act is to pretend he's recently discovered he's gay in order to gain sympathy from women, before cruelly dumping them. Deftly observed, "The Last Days of Disco" is one of the best videos I saw in 1998. It's an extremely talky, almost plotless, CHARACTER-driven story. The talk, however, is often very witty. Take, for example, the debate that films like "Lady and the Tramp" program women to adore jerks. Or the idea that the environmental movement started in the 50's after we all saw "Bambi". This is a terrific film that shines a light on a confusing time - a time many were scarcely prepared for.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but it's no Barcelona
Review: As with Barcelona, the highlight for me is the dialogue, especially from the mouth of Chris Eigeman ("It's Like, You Know..."). But the dialogue here isn't quite so engaging as it is in Barcelona. The characters, while generally unlikable (Eigeman's character dumps women by pretending to have "discovered" that he's gay), are well-drawn. If you liked Barcelona, go ahead and get this. If you haven't seen Barcelona, pick that over this.
Rating:
Summary: where is the plot? what is the point?
Review: except for a great soundtrack and sexy Matt Kessler, this film has nothing going for it all all...the acting is good and I love Kate Beckinsdale and Chloe Sevigny...but this film was terrible..it started off good enough and i thought I was gonna enjoy it, but by the time the hour is over, you realize the movie is not going anywhere and how bored you are...totally pointless....but great soundtrack...i was confused...too many characters...
Rating:
Summary: In one word witty
Review: The exchanges between Sevingy an Beckinsale are worth the price of the movie alone.This movie dosent try to give some sort of message it just lets you watch a bunch of interseting charecters well acted.
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