54
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54 |
Rating -
Cast & Crew info: Review Uploaded |
Written by DAVID KEYES
It has been a heavily debated theory that sets create the illusion
of reality in the movies. Encyclopedias and filmmakers declare them the
backbone of a motion picture's skeletal system, and the evolution of cinema
as we know it. Characters and plot are what add to the movie, but these,
supposedly, don't evolve until you, at first, have the sets in place. Without
them, what would movies be?
Watching "54", I quickly referred to this observation. The setting is
the disco era, which often is great inspiration for film makers to set
their movies in. Even though its music and story seem familiar, the movie
does not look or feel like any disco picture I've ever seen. It's all
in the setting, and when such settings are glorified with creative camera
swoops and moving music, we often get a movie so close to reality that
it's almost freaky.
"54" is a movie with great intentions, and instead of failing to capture
the life and passion in them, it goes beyond the possibilities, creating
an exact and fluent mental picture of the legendary studio 54, which,
in the late 1970s, was THE hangout for celebrities, disco freaks, rising
stars and young talents. When I mean talents, I don't mean that of a voice,
a sense of humor, or anything similar. Steve Rubell, the owner of studio
54, spent every night outside his disco hand-picking who got to go into
it, and those he picked had to be beautiful physically. Those who were
not were simply turned away by security.
Here, Rubell is played by none other than the star of "Wayne's World",
Mike Meyers, and I'm not being sarcastic when I say that his performance
is Oscar-worthy. He perfectly captures Rubell's life essence in this performance,
who, according to all of today's sources, made millions of dollars each
night off of his famous disco and didn't bother to let the IRS in on its
initial tax profit. Meyers goes to the screen surprisingly great in such
a performance, which, I imagine, is something that he has never attempted
before. His roles are often in comedies, and transforming to drama here
is just as great a transformation as Jim Carrey's in "The Truman Show".
Both are actors who didn't really make big impact with me in comedy. Like
Tom Hanks, they have found their calling, exploding to the screen like
experimental atomic bombs in the Persian Gulf.
But it's not just Meyers with the impact. Two familiar faces named Ryan
Phillipe and Salma Hayek are beginning to provide us glimpses of their
possible breakthrough careers in the near future. They both go on the
screen absolutely brilliantly, and never for one second do they let us
down.
The other big star, Neve Campbell, happens to be the film's only excess
baggage. Being billed as one of the lead roles, her whole air time totals
out to about 15 minutes, and in those minutes, there's really no point
for her character, other than to occasionally distract Phillipe's character
from his job at studio 54.
But never mind Campbell--the movie is just great. It begins like any
traditional disco movie--a kid sees and hears good word from a big popular
place in the city, goes to check it out, and quickly becomes submerged
in it. Phillipe starts out in New Jersey, and takes a voyage to New York
to see the legendary studio 54. When he's pulled in by the owner, Rubell,
he quickly becomes fond of the place, not only because his favorite celebrities
hang out there, but because the place has atmosphere and a great sense
of freedom. He narrates all of these feelings to us as they unfold, and
the narrations quickly become our cliff notes for the moments of the film
which seem to be somewhat confusing. Studio 54 was at the brink of death
in the 1980s, but since Rubell was long gone by then, the movie only explores
the wild years, when the balconies were the spots for couples to engage
in intercourse and the basement was the place where celebrities hung out.
Rubell himself was severely drugged out most of the time, and considered
the attendants at his disco the members his one and only 'family.' Then,
when the winter holidays of 1979 arrived, it seemed like everything began
to crumble. By this point, Rubell had already experienced international
fame for his disco, and Phillipe's character (ok, his name is Shane) was
almost at the peek of a modeling career. But here, he and Rubell began
to deteriorate. Shane's family refused to see him Christmas day when they
found out he was addicted to drugs, and Rubell seemed to be in hot water
when the IRS began investigating his profits off of the studio. At the
moment of 1980s new year unveiling, all of these problems clenched together,
and Studio 54 soon found itself under new management. Rubell was thrown
into jail for frauding the Internal Revenue, and, according to Shane's
observing narration, "the studio's freedom completely disappeared."
The movie is a complete and accurate portrait of these intense and wild
years at Studio 54. Though it strangely follows an exact pattern and formula
as Paul Thomas Anderson's "Boogie Nights", the movie is never dull or
predictable. It is always observant and watchable. I may not necessarily
consider myself a fan of disco, but it seems a little odd when such an
era produces such great movies like "Boogie Nights", "Thank God It's Friday!"
and this picture. If eras like the disco one can spark the imagination
of movie makers twenty years later, than disco has never really died.
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