54 ««
R, 93m. 1998
Cast & Credits: Ryan Phillippe (Shane O’Shea), Selma Hayek (Anita), Breckin Meyer (Greg Bandazzo), Mike Myers (Steve Rubell), Neve Campbell (Julie Black). Written and directed by Mark Christopher.
54, written and directed by Mark Christopher, reminded me of City Hall (1996), where the screenwriters told two separate stories. One was supposed to be about the rise and fall of a New York City mayor brilliantly portrayed by Al Pacino. Instead, the film was more about his right hand man played by John Cusack, and like City Hall before it, 54 is a movie about the wrong person.
When I saw 54 last fall I liked it enough to give the “worth a look” rating of two and a half stars. What I liked most about the film was not just Mike Meyers; who is barely recognizable in his first dramatic, albeit brief performance as club founder Steve Rubell. There is also the message the characters got after nights of binge drinking, heavy sex and drug use. They eventually realized that this self-destructive lifestyle had no rewards.
Seeing 54 on video again, I liked it even less. The movie runs at a scant 93 minutes but it feels like over two hours. The juiciest character in the film is Myers’ Rubell. Instead of being about him, however, Christopher makes the fatal mistake of telling a slow moving, uninvolving story about three ambitious youths who work at Rubell’s disco nightclub in downtown Manhattan in the early 1980s.
The picture is narrated by Ryan Phillippe who plays Shane O’Shea, a tall, blond whose lean, muscular appearance lands him a job as one of the club’s bartenders. He meets Greg (Breckin Meyer) who wants to open up a dance studio of his own and his wife, Anita (Selma Hayek), who dreams of becoming a singer.
Only a part of Shane’s dream is fulfilled though. The real reason he wanted to get into Studio 54 was so he could meet the woman of his dreams, soap opera star Julie Black (Neve Campbell). Black frequents the club on a regular basis in hopes of meeting some Hollywood agents who can help further her acting career.
The four leads; Phillipe, Hayek, Meyer and Campbell didn’t draw me in the way the characters did in Boogie Nights (1997). I was irritated with the characters from that film because they never realized what they were doing was destroying them both mentally and physically. By comparison, the characters in 54 failed to spark any real interest and I had no reason to feel happy, sorry, or disgust for any of them.
The best scenes are inside the night club. Christopher captures all the lurid craziness that went on from public sex to excessive drug use. There is a smiling crescent moon that hangs above the disco floor and looks like it is snorting from a spoon of ecstasy while men, dressed as Roman soldiers, ride on white horses. At one point, a goat is seen running across the dance floor and its reason for being there is anyone’s guess. While the male bartenders; whose job is “to keep the wine flowing and the ice chests full”, dress in only tight fitting shorts, socks, and gym shoes with no shirts with the exception of the bow ties around their necks.
54 is like Boogie Nights with a soundtrack that consists of disco music from the late 1970s and early 80s and includes songs from artists I never heard of like The Gibson Brothers, Odyssey, Thelma Houston and Santa Esmeralda. The film features numerous cameos from Lauren Hutton, Donald Trump, Sheryl Crow, Cindy Crawford and even British actor Michael York.
In real life, the place was Manhattan’s version of the Academy Awards in Los Angeles where spectators flocked to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars. Whereas the Oscars take place only once a year, the party happened practically every weekend at Studio 54 up until the place closed its doors in 1986. The list of famous guests was endless and included among them, Cary Grant, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Valerie Perrine, John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone, fashion designer Halston, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver.
At one point in the film, Rubell tells Shane that Grace Kelly will be making an appearance New Year’s Eve. Frankly, I doubt that ever happened.
Other than Rubell, the most memorable character in the movie is an 80-year-old grandmother who dons a wig to make her look young and dances until the wee hours of the morning. If this picture were in fact completely based on real life people, the woman’s story alone would have made a great feature article for a magazine if her life didn’t end with a drug overdose on the dance floor.
I find it a shame and probably even a waste that Christopher didn’t go into more detail about the man who founded Studio 54. Where did Rubell come from and what gave him the idea to come up with such an intriguing dance studio? There was never anything like it at the time and there hasn’t been anything like it since. I wanted to know more about this short, husky thin haired troll of a man who on some nights, depending on the mood he was in, would allow only about a hundred people in while hundreds more waited outside the dance club shouting, “Steve!!!”
Inside, Rubell would stand above the dimly lit dance floor in the disc jockey section saying emotional one liners to the audience like “I love you” before blowing his nose and introducing the club’s newest act. Other times, he would shout threats from atop his throne about his impending IRS audits like a James Bond villain, “Just try and tangle with me!!!”
Myers practically steals the show in what little scenes he is in. His character works 72 hour days straight with no sleep, boasts about how much money his club makes on talk shows without actually saying the dollar amounts (he whispers it in the host’s ear), downs a handful of pills he takes from a jar on his desk that I assume are amphetamines, and has a nerdy laugh like Fran Drescher’s on CBS’ The Nanny (1993-1999).
He gives us a glimpse of a man who deep down, seemed lonely and isolated and was surrounded by people he could only call acquaintances who either took advantage of or stole from him. That is with the possible exception of Shane who warns him the minute the IRS and law enforcement authorities raid the place. When he is told to get out before he is caught, the sad eyed Rubell says with a self-defeatist attitude, “Where would I go?”
In a celebration that happens a couple years after his release from prison, the former nightclub owner hopes “the party lasts forever.” But in real life, it was over for Rubell who died in 1989; reportedly of AIDS at age 45 after years of drug use and promiscuous sexual activity.
The week 54 was released in theaters the Arts and Entertainment network ran an hour long biography about Rubell and Studio 54. I, unfortunately, missed the program.
I am convinced, however, should I ever catch it on cable again, that I will probably learn more about this clever entrepreneur and the once popular disco hangout he created than I ever did watching this 93 minute film.
©1/14/99
R, 93m. 1998
Cast & Credits: Ryan Phillippe (Shane O’Shea), Selma Hayek (Anita), Breckin Meyer (Greg Bandazzo), Mike Myers (Steve Rubell), Neve Campbell (Julie Black). Written and directed by Mark Christopher.
When I saw 54 last fall I liked it enough to give the “worth a look” rating of two and a half stars. What I liked most about the film was not just Mike Meyers; who is barely recognizable in his first dramatic, albeit brief performance as club founder Steve Rubell. There is also the message the characters got after nights of binge drinking, heavy sex and drug use. They eventually realized that this self-destructive lifestyle had no rewards.
Seeing 54 on video again, I liked it even less. The movie runs at a scant 93 minutes but it feels like over two hours. The juiciest character in the film is Myers’ Rubell. Instead of being about him, however, Christopher makes the fatal mistake of telling a slow moving, uninvolving story about three ambitious youths who work at Rubell’s disco nightclub in downtown Manhattan in the early 1980s.
The picture is narrated by Ryan Phillippe who plays Shane O’Shea, a tall, blond whose lean, muscular appearance lands him a job as one of the club’s bartenders. He meets Greg (Breckin Meyer) who wants to open up a dance studio of his own and his wife, Anita (Selma Hayek), who dreams of becoming a singer.
Only a part of Shane’s dream is fulfilled though. The real reason he wanted to get into Studio 54 was so he could meet the woman of his dreams, soap opera star Julie Black (Neve Campbell). Black frequents the club on a regular basis in hopes of meeting some Hollywood agents who can help further her acting career.
The four leads; Phillipe, Hayek, Meyer and Campbell didn’t draw me in the way the characters did in Boogie Nights (1997). I was irritated with the characters from that film because they never realized what they were doing was destroying them both mentally and physically. By comparison, the characters in 54 failed to spark any real interest and I had no reason to feel happy, sorry, or disgust for any of them.
The best scenes are inside the night club. Christopher captures all the lurid craziness that went on from public sex to excessive drug use. There is a smiling crescent moon that hangs above the disco floor and looks like it is snorting from a spoon of ecstasy while men, dressed as Roman soldiers, ride on white horses. At one point, a goat is seen running across the dance floor and its reason for being there is anyone’s guess. While the male bartenders; whose job is “to keep the wine flowing and the ice chests full”, dress in only tight fitting shorts, socks, and gym shoes with no shirts with the exception of the bow ties around their necks.
54 is like Boogie Nights with a soundtrack that consists of disco music from the late 1970s and early 80s and includes songs from artists I never heard of like The Gibson Brothers, Odyssey, Thelma Houston and Santa Esmeralda. The film features numerous cameos from Lauren Hutton, Donald Trump, Sheryl Crow, Cindy Crawford and even British actor Michael York.
In real life, the place was Manhattan’s version of the Academy Awards in Los Angeles where spectators flocked to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars. Whereas the Oscars take place only once a year, the party happened practically every weekend at Studio 54 up until the place closed its doors in 1986. The list of famous guests was endless and included among them, Cary Grant, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, Valerie Perrine, John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone, fashion designer Halston, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver.
At one point in the film, Rubell tells Shane that Grace Kelly will be making an appearance New Year’s Eve. Frankly, I doubt that ever happened.
Other than Rubell, the most memorable character in the movie is an 80-year-old grandmother who dons a wig to make her look young and dances until the wee hours of the morning. If this picture were in fact completely based on real life people, the woman’s story alone would have made a great feature article for a magazine if her life didn’t end with a drug overdose on the dance floor.
I find it a shame and probably even a waste that Christopher didn’t go into more detail about the man who founded Studio 54. Where did Rubell come from and what gave him the idea to come up with such an intriguing dance studio? There was never anything like it at the time and there hasn’t been anything like it since. I wanted to know more about this short, husky thin haired troll of a man who on some nights, depending on the mood he was in, would allow only about a hundred people in while hundreds more waited outside the dance club shouting, “Steve!!!”
Inside, Rubell would stand above the dimly lit dance floor in the disc jockey section saying emotional one liners to the audience like “I love you” before blowing his nose and introducing the club’s newest act. Other times, he would shout threats from atop his throne about his impending IRS audits like a James Bond villain, “Just try and tangle with me!!!”
Myers practically steals the show in what little scenes he is in. His character works 72 hour days straight with no sleep, boasts about how much money his club makes on talk shows without actually saying the dollar amounts (he whispers it in the host’s ear), downs a handful of pills he takes from a jar on his desk that I assume are amphetamines, and has a nerdy laugh like Fran Drescher’s on CBS’ The Nanny (1993-1999).
He gives us a glimpse of a man who deep down, seemed lonely and isolated and was surrounded by people he could only call acquaintances who either took advantage of or stole from him. That is with the possible exception of Shane who warns him the minute the IRS and law enforcement authorities raid the place. When he is told to get out before he is caught, the sad eyed Rubell says with a self-defeatist attitude, “Where would I go?”
In a celebration that happens a couple years after his release from prison, the former nightclub owner hopes “the party lasts forever.” But in real life, it was over for Rubell who died in 1989; reportedly of AIDS at age 45 after years of drug use and promiscuous sexual activity.
The week 54 was released in theaters the Arts and Entertainment network ran an hour long biography about Rubell and Studio 54. I, unfortunately, missed the program.
I am convinced, however, should I ever catch it on cable again, that I will probably learn more about this clever entrepreneur and the once popular disco hangout he created than I ever did watching this 93 minute film.
©1/14/99
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