Damsels in Distress<\/em><\/a>,\u201d I thought.<\/p>\nBy the end I was so fascinated and pleased that I wanted to rewatch it immediately. I listened to the commentary track, which I rarely do with Netflix dvds because I am greedy and want my next one as fast as possible. But The Last Days of Disco<\/em> is an intelligent souffle. It\u2019s light\u2013if it were heavy it would be lugubrious, but it\u2019s so light that it\u2019s poignant instead\u2013and endearing, and insightful.<\/p>\nStrangely, the paeans to disco never get specific\u2013you could replace disco with anything, even punk. And the things I love most about disco, when I love it, don\u2019t really make an appearance in the film. I love the ecstasy and no-consequences, no-gravity feeling of disco, the release. When you dance you\u2019re off the clock. No ambitions, barely any self, just music and you inside it. Whereas these characters are pretty much always working at the disco: literally with Des (Chris Eigeman), who\u2019s I think a gatekeeper or bouncer or something?, and Jimmy the adman who takes his clients there for a night on the town; but also figuratively, since all of the characters are pushing<\/em> for relationships and social position. I don\u2019t dislike this, I just found it weird in an intriguing way. I guess since the (lovely) religious hints connect religion to order in the soul, a peaceful ordering of our loves rather than a chaotic and hurtful welter, I maybe would have liked more about why the main religiously-attuned guy loves disco so much. I don\u2019t associate disco with order at all.<\/p>\nI like how almost all of these characters are trying<\/em>, in one way or another. There are ways of doing tragedy or satire where it\u2019s about people willfully being awful, but I think my favorite tragedies and satires are about how many important things we botch when we\u2019re trying very hard not to. I loved all of the characters except the Robert Sean Leonard one, who is just really, really hateable. Out of the main five characters Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale, china-doll pretty and \u201980s-flick fierce, like a rich girl in a John Hughes film, thanks for this) tries the least, but that\u2019s mostly because she lacks self-awareness. She thinks she\u2019s a self-aware villainess but she\u2019s actually more of a disingenuous, striving naif.<\/p>\nMy favorite moment: Des and Alice (Chloe Sevigny) are having coffee together. He: \u201cDo you think it\u2019s really true that coffee has the same neurological effect as cocaine?\u201d She affirms this, and he lowers his head to his cup. Then looks up at her, with these giant eyes: I\u2019m trusting you on this<\/em>, anxious, struggling. And snorts his coffee.<\/p>\nI could yammer a bit about the reasons this moment worked for me so well\u2013the whole thing of, \u201cThere must be a way to make this high more intense!\u201d, the idiot ingenuity of it, the perfect timing of his miserable snuffling snort. But really it\u2019s the hilarious trust in his eyes.<\/p>\n
Some notes:<\/p>\n
Sevigny going into the club at the very beginning: braced, charging, ambitious; shoulders squared<\/p>\n
they almost hated the title!!! \u201cIt\u2019s not really a disco film\u201d (okay, but it\u2019s a terrific<\/em> title\u2013that souffle-light note of elegy)<\/p>\nThe women are in this moment, which in fact we\u2019re still in, where it\u2019s bad to be a prude but bad to be a slut. It\u2019s not even that you can\u2019t win, it\u2019s that anyone can win who decides to play against<\/em> you. It\u2019s a bit worse to be a virgin than to be a slut but really the only safe option is to strike first, use another woman\u2019s reputation against her so yours won\u2019t be used against you. Better to be a bitch than a prude or<\/em> a slut; and those are your options.<\/p>\ntheme of how do you get yourself chosen? (velvet rope, publishing, career, romance) what drink should I order? How can I be unpredictable in a \u201cunique, refreshing\u201d way, not a crazy way?<\/p>\n
LOL I love Eigeman\u2019s constant giant eyes. He never, ever squints. Always giant staring. I CAN\u2019T BELIEVE IT, WHY ARE THESE PREDICTABLE CONSEQUENCES OF MY ACTIONS HAPPENING TO ME. He\u2019s so great at looking unjustifiably put-upon. \u2026He\u2019s also great at being self-righteous when you can tell the character knows he isn\u2019t really on the moral high ground. (Unlike Charlotte, who does seem to sometimes convince herself, for split seconds at a time, that she\u2019s in the right.)<\/p>\n
\u201cpersecution\u201d: of people in advertising, of people who like disco, of yuppies (\u201cKILL YUPPIE SCUM\u201d), of lol Des for being a disaster. I would be so unsympathetic to this \u201cthe rich are the real victims here!\u201d thing if it weren\u2019t handled with a beautiful light touch. It\u2019s ironizing, not complaining.<\/p>\n
this is well-constructed\u2014the plot coil tightens and then springs quite satisfyingly.<\/p>\n
Alice gets slammed for being inauthentic re: Scrooge McDuck, as vs Des\u2019s glorious cab monologue about how you shouldn\u2019t be true \u201cto thine own self\u201d if your own self is awful. Her<\/em> own self is much less awful than the \u201csexy\u201d persona she\u2019s trying to wear.<\/p>\nI love that Charlotte isn\u2019t a pure villain. She seems genuinely disingenuous, her apologies; and she takes down Dan (\u201cWhat if we don\u2019t marry corporate [millionaires]? What if we marry meatballs, like you?\u201d), the handsy guy on the train, etc. \u201cAnything I did that was wrong, I apologize for. But anything I did that was not wrong, I don\u2019t apologize for!\u201d<\/p>\n
even all the romantic stuff is very goal-directed, they\u2019re always looking<\/i> for someone (and usually someone specific) at the disco
\n<\/span><\/p>\nI will say that I don\u2019t get what Jimmy Steinway is doing in this movie other than moving the plot around.<\/p>\n
Man, I do love the unemployment insurance scenes. Not sure I\u2019ve ever seen that in a movie, people signing up for welfare.<\/p>\n
Also really like the whole character arc of the prosecutor, the guy who loves disco and longs for order in his soul. Everything about that character works for me.<\/p>\n
Charlotte awesomely singing \u201cAmazing Grace\u201d <\/span>to top Alice\/prosecutor guy<\/i>, like, it\u2019s all about her self-image as accepting and cool and kooky, and yet it also really does give a spiritual feel to the scene.<\/span><\/p>\nin the cab, the Polonius scene, Des\u2019s dark high crest of greasy sweat-stiffened hair, I think half the cokeheads of the \u201980s had this hair if the video evidence can be trusted.<\/p>\n
So yeah. I loved this film and I\u2019d love to hear your thoughts on it.<\/p>\n