Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Salma Hayek, Brecklin Meyer, Mike Myers, Neve Campbell, Sela Ward, Heather
Matarazzo, Ellen Albertini Dow
Director: Mark Christopher
Producers: Ira Deutchman, Richard Gladstein, Dolly Hall
Screenplay: Mark Christopher
Cinematography: Alexander Gruszynski
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
Superficially (and that's a good word to use in connection with this film), 54 bears a resemblance to Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco. The time period (the late '70s and early '80s) is the same, the place (New York's most exclusive disco) is the same, and the music is the same. However, while Stillman's film boasted interesting characters and provocative dialogue, 54 has neither. Beneath all the glitz, this movie is vapid. In fact, in terms of plotline, it's a lot like a shallow echo of Boogie Nights. Take the porn industry, replace it with Manhattan's disco scene, cut the running length in half by removing most of the degradation, and the result is 54. Although this film may appeal to those who were offended by Boogie Nights, almost everyone who praised Paul Thomas Anderson's feature will see 54 as an inferior product.
That's not to say that 54 is a waste of time. It's an interesting snapshot of a recently- deceased piece of culture. However, this is the disco scene as we want to remember it, not necessarily as it was. 54 paints a lively, energetic picture that's all glitter, glamour, and passion. The sex and drugs are present in abundance, but Mark Christopher's portrait is heavily sanitized. There's only one overdose, and the effects of drug abuse and unprotected sex are mentioned only in passing. Maybe that's the best way to remember the late-'70s. A clearer view (such as the one presented in Boogie Nights and Whatever) is much less appealing.
When it comes to style, 54 is an unqualified triumph. Studio 54, the famed, exclusive Manhattan den of disco and decadence, is re-created gloriously, from the balconies (where patrons had sex) and the basement (where the VIPs hung out and got high) to the dance floor. The atmosphere is almost over-energized, with the beat of a disco tune always in the background. If there was a modern day Babylon in America, it was Studio 54, and that's the sense that first time director Christopher gives us.
Alas, this is a cliched case of style over substance. The trite story is a letdown because it traverses a predictable arc. While it's true that some of the people and events in 54 are real, and therefore only subject to marginal manipulation by the script, the disappointment comes from how shallow the fictional elements are. The movie's central character, a 19-year old Jersey City boy named Shane O'Shea (Ryan Phillippe), is Christopher's creation, and he's not especially interesting.
When we first meet Shane, he's gazing longingly across the Hudson River at the Manhattan skyline. He's bored by the local nightlife and wants to go into the city. After persuading his car- owning friend to drive him there, he ends up standing outside of Studio 54, trying to get in. When the club's owner, Steve Rubell (Mike Myers), spies Shane, he is taken by the young man's good looks, and waves him through. Soon, Shane has joined the ranks of bare-chested busboys working under the strobe lights. He makes friends with a co-worker, Greg (Brecklin Meyer), who teaches him the ropes. Greg is married to a coat-check girl and would-be singer, Anita (Salma Hayek). Meanwhile, Shane's favoritism by Rubell and a prominent socialite (Sela Ward) puts him on the fast track. It's not long before he has been promoted from busboy to bartender. As a result of his new job, he gets all the women and drugs that he wants, and has set his sights on a soap opera actress, Julie Black (Neve Campbell), whom he has long admired from afar.
Actor Ryan Phillippe (I Know What You Did Last Summer) fails to make much of an impression as Shane. It's not all his fault – this is not a well-developed character – but Phillippe is unable to hold his own when placed in scenes with the radiant Salma Hayek and the equally charismatic Neve Campbell. And he really looks bad when acting alongside Heather Matarazzo (the lead from Todd Solondz' Welcome to the Dollhouse), who plays his sister, Grace. Somehow, Phillippe seems dwarfed by his surroundings while his co-stars manage to blend in with them.
It's worth noting that his performance as Steve Rubell represents a departure for Mike Myers, the ex-Saturday Night Live star who is known for manic characters in Wayne's World and Austin Powers. Myers, following in the recent footsteps of Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Bill Murray, and Jim Carrey, is trying out his hand at a serious role. His portrayal of Rubell, the overlord of Studio 54, is effective, although, like everything else in the movie, it lacks depth. Rubell is presented as a needy, somewhat-pathetic figure, but the script is short on background. He seems to exist more as a plot device than as a legitimate character.
For those who are in search of a relatively undemanding look at the disco era, 54 more than adequately fills the bill. Likewise, for viewers who didn't appreciate the grim downside of Boogie Nights, 54 offers the rise of a young would-be superstud without concentrating on the fall. Overall, however, 54 delivers less than one might expect from the premise. Too often, the film is more like a soundtrack with visuals than a well constructed, fully developed motion picture.
© 1998 James Berardinelli