FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| FILM The Last Days of Disco One of the things that rings most false about The Last Days of Disco is how the characters, basically written as intellectuals - as Stillman is shamelessly prone to do - rant on about how great disco is as a cultural movement and how it could never die. Of course Stillman is mocking the movement, but it's far too contrived and obvious. As the title suggests, disco is nearing its ugly end and it would be ridiculous to believe these characters are still clinging to the lifestyle - and some are just discovering it - as if there was nothing else to live for. Surely these types of people existed, but they were not the acutely informed individuals that Stillman presents here, rather, they were more the "bricks" that danced to Pink's Floyd's disco mock-up "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)." Stillman has always used his characters to articulate his own cerebral bantering in such ponderous ways - in this film it's unfortunate. Just when the characters are hitting home with real human emotions, Stillman has to throw in another of his intellectual anecdotes to show off. Many have nothing to do with the course of conversation. There's also excessive disco dancing shots which slow an already razor-thin narrative to a crawl, but die-hard retro addicts may find the scenes amusing. Have to hand it to Wilt though, he did capture the superficiality of the era rather well, and his characters, while not compelling, are funny and not without their humanity. This is a much better film than the overrated Metropolitan, but Stillman should stop trying to be the next Woody Allen. If he could dig further into that neuron-infested heart of his, he may soon conjure up something totally worthwhile. |