54 (1998) on Netflix
In 1979, 19-year-old Shane O'Shea pumps gas in Jersey City and dreams of Manhattan. Studio 54 co-owner Steve Rubell spots him in the crowd and hires him as a busboy.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb5.9/1036,176 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes15%
Trailer
Plot summary
Shane O'Shea, nineteen and stuck at a gas station in Jersey City, spends his nights longing for Manhattan across the river. Studio 54's co-owner Steve Rubell singles him out of the crowd at the door, and Shane is drawn into a club world of alcohol, drugs and open sex. He takes a job as a busboy, fights with his widowed father Harlan over it and moves into a Manhattan apartment with Greg Randazzo, a fellow busboy, and Greg's wife Anita, a coat-check girl who sings. Promoted to bartender, Shane poses for a magazine photo shoot and moves among the city's wealthy regulars, wanting to be valued for more than his looks.
Cast
- Patrick Tayloras Tarzan
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about 54 (1998)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After Harvey Weinstein screen tested director Mark Christopher's cut, audiences reacted badly to the bisexuality of Ryan Philippe's Shane and to a kiss between him and Breckin Meyer's Greg. Miramax then ordered the bisexuality removed, hired a second writing team to play up a romance with Neve Campbell's character, and barred Christopher from the editing room.
- In the years after the theatrical cut came out, a bootleg VHS of the two-hour rough cut circulated until New York's Outfest screened it to a sold-out crowd in 2008. Miramax eventually gave the filmmakers the green light, and the 105-minute director's cut, with 44 minutes of restored footage, played the Berlin festival in February 2015.
