now that " boogie nights " has made disco respectable again ( well , fashionable at least ) , we shouldn't be surprised to see more films glorifying that dubious era . the latest art house interpretation is whit stillman's " the last days of disco . " stillman , who made " metropolitan " and " barcelona " using some of the same actors , uses disco's final hours to highlight what is another conversation-heavy movie that benefits from typically astute writing from the director . the young , upwardly-mobile professional ( don't call them yuppies ! ) men and women of " the last days of disco " frequent a prestigious new york city nightclub pulsating to the bass-pounding rhythms of earth wind and fire , amy grant , and andrea true connection . here they talk and talk and talk , intellectualizing about such things as dating , success , and being liked , accepted , and admired . if talk is cheap , " the last days of disco " must surely have been an extremely inexpensive movie to shoot . what makes the film so entertaining is that this preppie , harvard-educated jet set actually have something to say and say it with wit , perception , and style ( including , at one point , a riotously inventive deconstruction of " the lady and the tramp " ) . na ? ve alice ( chlo ? sevigny ) and sophisticated charlotte ( kate beckinsale ) are recent college graduates who work as assistant editors for a new york publishing house . charlotte is confident and outspoken--perhaps a little too outspoken ; alice is shy and introverted , " like a kindergarten teacher . " the two friends often doll themselves up and head out to the nameless nightspot , looking good and looking for excitement ( and that ms . beckinsale sure looks good on a dancefloor ! ) . here they meet , or re-meet , a variety of eligible men , many of whom they knew in college . des ( played by stillman favorite christopher eigeman ) is one of the club's managers whose job is on the line for sneaking his ad agency buddies in the back . des has reached a crisis point in his life : he just found out--last wednesday , in fact--that he's gay . whether it's true or not , it makes for a convenient excuse to dump his latest girlfriend ( jennifer beals in a small but soul-baring turn ) . charlotte observes cattily that the only gay thing about des is his mouth . jimmy ( mackenzie astin ) is the advertising exec who , by the end of the picture , winds up heading for a new job opportunity in spain ( visions of " barcelona " ? ) . josh ( matt keeslar ) is an assistant district attorney who dreams of being able to say , just once , " book this clown ! " and robert sean leonard plays another one of alice's revolving suitors ; the two have an amusing exchange about the true definition of virginity . any film that can make robert sean leonard palatable is worthy of respect in my book . in fact , the entire ensemble is appealing in that well-spoken stillman way . while the eschewing of " ferocious pairing " is a favored topic of conversation in the film , the protagonists tend to slip in and out of love , lust , and trouble with each other in an emotional merry-go-round that cleverly develops its characters through the " preferred " dynamics of social group interaction . more mature than stillman's previous two films , " the last days of disco " is as consistently droll as it is stimulating . it's a movie you should definitely get on down to .
