After finally getting around to seeing Damsels in Distress last week, I figured I'd give "The Last Days of Disco" another watch. To be honest, I was expecting to like it less than I did at first blush, but I found that the past fourteen years have been kinder to it than I expected. Or rather, aging fourteen years has allowed me to respect the film in an entirely different way.

When I first saw it years ago, I remember being strangely envious of the characters. I mean, I thought that disco was a joke and that they were all praying to a false idol in that regard. But, well, when you're a shy high school kid in Jerkwater, Louisiana,…

One of my favorite movies of all time -- every single time I watch it, which is often, I love it more. I first saw it when it was in the theaters. My brother and I bought a weeklong pass to a Warner Brothers festival - in between seeing Casablanca, JFK, Blade Runner, Errol Flynn's Robin Hood, The Maltese Falcon, and other films that week, we also theater-hopped into LDOD when the WB wasn't playing something we loved -- 4 times, it turned out. So, some rambling thoughts. . .

First, we should probably get the negative out of the way. The film's biggest criticisms are two:

1. Nothing happens -- absolutely true. In terms of plot, there's just not…

I like this movie, but it had a few serious flaws. First off is that a large portion of this film is set in disco clubs in New York. That isn’t a problem in its self, but this is the most sterilized disco that I can imagine. Think about if Woodstock was viewed as a wine tasting, instead of a grungy, muddy, festival of hippies and burnouts. I know that Whit Stillman was familiar with this world (far more that I am), so I wonder why he chose to represent this scene in such a disinfected manner? The second issue may tie into the first one. All the conversations in the club (and it is a Whit Stillman film so…

Those who didn't understand will never understand: disco was much more, and much better, than all that. Disco was too great, and too much fun, to be gone forever! It's got to come back someday.

Sometimes recording films on tv more or less on a hunch can prove just right, because I really liked this one. I haven't seen any of Whit Stillman's films before, but this one at least reminded me of Noah Baumbach. It was a bit like a his Kicking and Screaming meets Jane Austen in an American Psycho era. That's how I described this to myself while watching, anyway. Jane Austen? Yeah, probably unfair to everyone involved in the comparison, but especially Kate Beckinsale's character is…

It only took about three minutes into this movie before I realized I was finally at a familiar enough stage in the world of Whit Stillman to become an ardent and appreciative fan. Not only did I find myself fully understanding the rhythm and unique nuances within his words, but by the time The Last Days of Disco came to a close, I was suddenly wanting to call him a genius. I'm not sure if that's accurate, but what I can say with complete certainty is that he is one of the few American screenwriters who possess a distinct voice.

I think what makes this film Stillman's finest achievement is the brilliant execution of the casting for each role. Like…

The two things I noticed throughout "The Last Days of Disco" were that the dialogue was consistently strong and that Kate Beckinsale was sort of brilliant as the bitchy Charlotte. The script is intelligently written, with characters that are developed subtly throughout and dialogue that is funny and fun to listen to. That being said, the script also rambles quite a bit and lacks focus. There are too many characters and too many subplots, which certainly distracts from the screenplay's strong points. As for the performance, Kate Beckinsale steals the film. I never took Beckinsale seriously as an actress, perhaps because I don't have an interest in her other films, but she's fantastic here and steals every scene she's in.…

I'm trying to remember what it was about this movie that prompted me to rate it five out of ten when I first saw it roughly a decade ago. Madness. The only reason I can come up with is that the actual disco elements are a bit superfluous. And silly. Such as the principles spending all of their time at one club (likely a budgetary necessity) and the end of the "movement" actually being announced on the street with all the subtlety of a newspaper boy hawking the evening edition. As if these things kill a movie. Especially one that's not really about disco at all.

That Lady and the Tramp discussion is key, the kind of off-the-cuff scene you…