LAST DAYS OF DISCO
Literary Cinema
LAST DAYS OF DISCO
It’s the early 1980s and disco is hitting its cultural climax. Alice and Charlotte are apathetic acquaintances (or maybe more like tempestuous “friends”) undergoing their post-college rite of moving to New York City together. They’re friendly with Jimmy, a subtly charming advertising executive who’s friends with Des, an arrogant club manager and Josh, a zany district attorney. Whit Stillman’s 1998 film The Last Days of Disco, follows this cast of fledgling and yet presumptuous pseudo intellectual characters as they frequent nightclubs and navigate their identity, relationships and life itself beyond the confines of an Ivy League university. If you’re looking to track Noah Baumbach’s cinematic predecessors, this is the film to watch. Driven by deft dialogue and a sardonic, sociological undertone, the film captures and critiques both a fleeting cultural moment — disco’s rise and fall — and the enduring malaise of aimless, privileged youth searching for purpose. Plus, it stars young Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale and has a great soundtrack chock full of iconic disco hits.
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As discerning literary women ourselves, we at So Textual believe your summer reading stack can be as intellectually enriching as it is indulgent—dismissing the notion that the “beach read” must be light, throwaway, or emotionally shallow.
The Official So Textual Summer Reading List blends the literary with the leisurely—think Mediterranean villas, blue skies, glittering water, and long afternoons spent with a book in hand.
These are the books that smart, sophisticated, well-read women are slipping into their carry-ons for this year’s summer vacation. Some are sun-soaked and romantic; others are contemplative and quietly devastating. All have been chosen for the thinking woman’s summer.