except my memory lane was in Dallas, not New York City. I just fell in love with this film and its characters, characters who could only exist as they did and together in that very late disco period.

Actually, Stillman got some things wrong, and maybe he did so on purpose. "Disco Destruction Night", occurred in July 1979, and he's got it happening "in the very early 80s" at about the mid point of the film. Since disco was completely dead - and its death was like that of one struck down suddenly by a heart attack - by the fall of 1980, he is probably aware of the anachronisms here, and just spun the tale as it was to prevent himself from basically making a yuppie version of Saturday Night Fever. Stillman must have been acutely aware of not wanting to be that film because, did you notice the film is devoid of even one song by the brothers Gibb, who are practically emblematic of the disco era?

The film's focus is on a group of recent college grads in their early to mid 20's. You could call them friends but they are more like acquaintances, and they all frequent one particular disco. The center of the film is the pair of - I guess you'd call them friends - Alice and Charlotte. Alice is a quiet girl. I'd almost call her an Amish girl in sequined clothes and platform shoes by night, business attire and sensible shoes for her job in publishing by day. Charlotte is a mess. She went to the same college as Alice, and she seems to seek out a connection with Alice much more than vice versa, even though Charlotte is the outgoing one. But she is constantly putting Alice down, steering her the wrong way in her relationships, and blurting things out that embarrass Alice. Charlotte seems like the kind of person who just wants other people around to make her feel better about herself. Among the men in the group we have an ad man who must be able to get clients into the club or he'll be fired, a lawyer, and an assistant manager at the club who avoids commitment by telling women he is gay.

In short, there is something unlikable about all of these people except maybe Alice, yet I found them fascinating. It's like "The Asphalt Jungle" (minus the crime) meets "Friends".

All of these people are college educated, some at the Ivy Leagues, yet they are underpaid, and in the case of Charlotte and Alice, doing jobs that in any other city would go to high school grads. They mate, decouple with varying amounts of pain and drama, are living their youth at a time when they believe "The H" - herpes - is the worst thing that can happen to you, and when disco dies, proclaim that it just CAN'T be dead. It's not disco they are mourning, it is their passing from one phase of their youth to a more mature state, although I doubt they even realize it yet. A youth lived in the most exciting city in the world in a time of unique cultural acceptance and sexual freedom, and now they are forced to march on to a more constrained existence. Their post college adolescence is over.

My favorite parts - Robert Sean Leonard as an environmental lawyer who seems sensitive at first yet denies his sexual partners certain vital "need to know" information, a hilarious deconstruction of Lady and the Tramp as only Harvard grads could do it, and the closing credits superimposed on what could almost be called a music video featuring "Love Train" that sends the film out on a joyful hopeful note.

Just a few words about the plot - there really is none. If you are looking for an action picture look elsewhere. But if you like films filled with great dialogue I highly suggest it.

If you like 70s music than this is the film for you. Other than those BeeGees classics that were in Saturday Night Fever you'll hear just about every popular song going during the era. The producers must have spent a fortune getting the rights for the soundtracks.

The plot is something like St.Elmo's Fire and set about 10 years earlier than the release in 1998. Some affluent 20 somethings two women, Chloe Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale are headed for a night on the town. They get involved with four guys at one point or another Chris Eigerman, Matt Keeslar, Mackenzie Astin, and Robert Sean Leonard. All them newly minted adults who haven't quite figured it out yet.

Eigerman's character was interesting. He's a general all around fixer/handyman at the club whose job is in danger because the right kind who might not fit into the elite it caters to keep getting in. He's really rather clueless but lovable in a strange way.

David Thornton who is a semi-regular on Law And Order, SVU as a sleazy defense attorney plays the equally sleazy club owner. He's got his hands in all kinds of illegality and Eigerman is the cause of his downfall when he shows Matt Keeslar what Thornton is up to. Keeslar has the job to make it stick and unwittingly brings about the end of this Studio 54 type club.

I did kind of like the ending. You could almost that Irving Berlin song from another era, The Song Is Ended, but the melody lingers on in that surreal finale on a subway.

For you aging hustle dancers The Last Days Of Disco is for you.

It's the very early 80s in NYC. Alice Kinnon (Chloë Sevigny) and Charlotte Pingress (Kate Beckinsale) are recent graduates working at a publishing house as low pay readers. Dan Powers (Matt Ross) is their annoying co-worker and Holly (Tara Subkoff) is their quiet roommate. Jimmy Steinway (Mackenzie Astin) tries to bring his elderly client into the club. His club manager friend Des McGrath (Chris Eigeman) throws him out. Tom Platt (Robert Sean Leonard) is a charming environmental lawyer who gets together with Alice. They and others spend the nights in and out of the disco club.

The cast of characters is a bit too large. I wish Whit Stillman could trim a few out of the group. Alice and Charlotte are quite a pair. They're not real friends but rather opposites stuck together. Their relationship is fascinating. There are fun bits coming from Charlotte like Des' gay mouth. Chris Eigeman continues to be the best of the Stillman disciples. Dan is probably a necessary evil. I would like this movie more if the membership in the group is more stable and restricted to fewer people.