The Last Days of Disco (1998) on Netflix
Alice Kinnon and Charlotte Pingress read manuscripts for low pay at a New York publisher. Their nights go to an exclusive disco, where Alice hopes to run into Jimmy Steinway.
- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.7/1015,331 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes73%
Trailer
Plot summary
An exclusive Manhattan disco is where a group of young graduates meet in the early 1980s. Alice Kinnon and Charlotte Pingress both read manuscripts at a publisher for low pay, and their evenings go to the club. Alice wants Jimmy Steinway, who works in advertising; Charlotte, full of advice, steers her toward the lawyer Tom Platt. Des McGrath manages the club and slips Jimmy past the owner's rules. Des also has a routine: when he loses interest in a woman, he tells her he has discovered he is gay. The two women, short of money, take an apartment with Holly. Josh Neff, an assistant district attorney, begins appearing at the club, and Charlotte has no patience for him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Last Days of Disco (1998)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Winona Ryder was offered the lead role of Alice Kinnon through her agent, but two days after the studio's call, Chloë Sevigny, recommended by editor Chris Tellefsen after her performance in Kids, auditioned for and won the part.
- Ben Affleck was originally looking into playing Des McGrath, but Whit Stillman, who had worked with Chris Eigeman before, gave the part to Eigeman instead.
- The distributor pushed Stillman's crew to finish and release the film ahead of Miramax's disco film 54, and it was: 54 opened in US cinemas in late August 1998, two months after The Last Days of Disco.
- Kate Beckinsale, then living in England, mailed an audition tape to Whit Stillman; he was immediately mesmerized and cast her as Charlotte Pingress.
- The disco interiors were shot in Loew's Jersey Theatre in Jersey City, which was being renovated; Stillman's crew shared the building with another production that shot there beforehand and had paid for its red carpeting.
SPOILER
Chloë Sevigny said the film's upbeat subway dance finale caught the attention of director Kimberly Peirce, who cast her in Boys Don't Cry (1999), the performance that earned her an Oscar nomination.
