Whit Stillman’s cleverly comic look at the early 1980s Manhattan party scene from the vantage point of two stylish frenemies in the late nineties is an affectionate yet unsentimental look at the end of an era. 

At the center of the film’s roundelay of revelers are the icy Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale) and the demure Alice (Chloë Sevigny), by day toiling as publishing house assistants and by night looking for romance and entertainment at a Studio 54–like disco club. Full of the director’s trademark wit and dry humor, The Last Days of Disco is a fascinating and hilarious portrait of two young women fresh out of college navigating their personal and professional lives as the popular culture around them undergoes change. 

Although Disco is the third comedy of manners in Stillman’s loose trilogy about ‘doomed bourgeois in love’ (Metropolitan and Barcelona being the other two), it has transcended the rest of the director’s filmography with its standout, career-best performances from Beckinsale and Sevigny, along with the work of costume designer Sarah Edwards, whose designs made the characters of Charlotte and Alice into fashion icons.