If filmmaker Whit Stillman has a fault, it's that sometimes he's too smart for his own good.
His movies are filled to the brim with ironic dialogue and sometimes have an aloof quality, which has made them critical, but not commercial, favorites.
And though "The Last Days of Disco" has a bigger budget, a more prominent cast and a tone that is more mainstream than his two earlier films (1990's "Metropolitan" and 1994's "Barcelona"), this talky and uneven but often funny romantic comedy is definitely a Whit Stillman film. (In fact, the effort rounds out Stillman's "Nightlife Comedies" film trilogy and includes cameos by characters from the other two movies.)
Stillman is also in the habit of giving his films titles that don't quite reflect the content. So when his movie is called "The Last Days of Disco," you can be certain it's about something else.
In this case, it follows two young book company "readers" — the naive Alice (Chloe Sevigny, from "Palmetto") and the more calculating Charlotte ("Cold Comfort Farm's" Kate Beckinsale) — who are looking for love in all the wrong places. And that includes some of New York's most trendy nightspots, circa the early '80s.
But the objects of Alice's affections are a highly flawed bunch, to put it mildly. Nightclub flunky Des (Chris Eigeman) is a relationship-phobic lothario, environmental lawyer Tom (Robert Sean Leonard) is still hung up on an ex-girlfriend, and assistant prosecutor Josh (Matt Keeslar) may be mentally unstable.
Of course, it doesn't help that the seemingly supportive Charlotte is giving her bad advice on both her love life and her work.
It's to Stillman's credit as a writer and director that he manages to make these yuppie characters likable. Sevigny and Keeslar are particularly appealing, as is Eigeman, though he plays an unrepentant heel.
And Beckinsale is even better, playing a character that's the antithesis of her role as TV's "Emma." It's also mindblowing that her American intonations come so naturally, even when she is singing.
Also, it's nice to see that Stillman doesn't make fun of the disco music and dance "scene" of the '80s. Instead, he makes good use of some great music.
Unfortunately, he also uses the sexual permissiveness of that era as an excuse to bring in some drug and sexual content that seems pretty out of place here.
"The Last Days of Disco" is rated R for vulgar sex talk and gags, profanity, simulated drug use, violent fist fighting, female nudity, sex and brief gore.