The Last Days of Disco

Well, before you see this, ask yourself if you either: a) want to engorge yourself with lengthy witty banter, or b) see a Wasp-y version of the weaving of people in and out of relationships like Seinfeld or Woody Allen but with a bigger cast? If your answer is yes, this is your movie. If not, not.

This movie is FAR more like Stillman's others (Metropolitan and Barcelona) than like anything you've seen about disco - which is simply the background. I was surprised that these yuppie characters were so freely admitted to Studio 54 (the set of the film), but perhaps it indicates disco's waning popularity by the early 1980s.

I enjoyed it very much - but it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Chloe Sevigny, the independent film princess, lands in the great emerald city by the sea. The final moments of the disco period are about to expire and she must dispose of her wickedly evil roommate, Kate Beckinsale. The disco is the epicenter of the film, the "Oz" if you will, where the wizard appears to control the music and lights of the city. Whit Stillman produces movies as often as the Olympics come around, but I like the tone he achieves here. Check-out the eighties publishing world depicted in the film. What's missing? No computers. The office seems less cluttered and more soothing to the creative spirit. There's an off-the-cuff reference to J.D. Salinger and his different works. There are many such random references scattered through the frames of the film. The director keeps you on your toes. The highlight of the film arrives on an iron horse by means of an impromptu dance sequence. The extemporaneous dance number spills out onto the subway platform and beyond the station. Nice touch.

Another winner from Whit Stillman! This is a very clever, well-written film in the Eric Bogosian or Hal Hartley style of a play for the screen. This film really does feel like theater in many ways, especially the funny and clever, tightly written dialogue.

Superb performance by almost the entire cast (the one exception being McKenzie Astin, who was fairly awful, but was barely onscreen so it was shrugable), raised the film to a level above its potential. Kate Beckinsale was the perfect bitch, so annoying that I wanted to pull her out of the screen and shake her repeatedly;) Christopher Eigeman nearly stole the show as Des, he played the character perfectly, his voice and tone always on edge, the defensiveness and womanizing, the stories he told, all a brilliant package. But Chloë Sevigny more than held her own, with her best performance that I've ever seen...everything from her line release to her body language stuck out; she became Alice.

This film is a definite must see...a great soundtrack, great sets, brilliant writing and better acting. It's a bit long, some scenes feel unnecessary, and at times he seems to be over-hammering his point, but Stillman has still provided us with a near-masterpiece, 8/1.

I was a disco queen and what I loved about this movie is that it captured the innocence and naivete of the time along with everyone trying to be what they thought others thought was "cool". No other movie really captures that aspect of the disco days so perfectly. it was a time where everyone was looking for love, walking into a disco hoping all eyes were on them but being naive in regards to relationships. So banal, ridiculous conversations happened constantly while trying to impress or create desire. Then you went home with either the person you had the most chemistry with or whoever you were left with at the end of the night. Generally the sex sucked and not in a good way(ah that was a touch of Charlotte I think). This movie perfectly hit on all those things and takes me back many years. The only thing it didn't have was the absolute joy and abandon many people felt while dancing. There was such a freedom and love of life. Ah well, nothing's perfect, not even disco.

`You have no idea what men think about women's breasts,' womaniser Des McGrath (Christopher Eigeman) pleads. No, not a rehash of Boogie Nights, but the third instalment, following Metropolitan and Barcelona, of Whitman's `yuppie' odyssey.

This New York yarn centres on publishing assistants Charlotte (flawless snotty American accent by Kate Beckinsale) and her best friend/biggest rival Alice (Chloe Sevigny). Bitchy Charlotte - `In physical terms, I'm cuter than you, but you're much nicer than I am,' - and Alice fall in with a parade of self-absorbed fellows in pullovers and drab ties. The `verbal' action between this set of intellectual folk takes place at a ludicrous dance palace in the very early 80s, with the `disco movement' decaying and Reagan's soul-devouring materialism taking hold.

In the main these are disagreeable people, but as much as you urge yourself to loathe them, you can't quite do it. Whitman's wildly self-indulgent and witty script (`Do you think the neurological effects of caffeine are similar to that of cocaine?') makes them impossible to ignore and eventually their awfulness becomes disturbingly compelling. A bit like Friends, only without dumb Joey and flaky Phoebe.

Although, aesthetically and visually Whitman's film doesn't quite ring true – clothing looks too 90s and they'd never be able to talk so much in a club – the dialogue is fresh and chances are you'll be grinning from here to Bolivia when the "Love Train" rolls through the subway at the end.

• Ben Walsh