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STUDIO 54
Director: Matt Tyrnauer MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:38 Release Date: 10/5/18 (limited); 10/19/18 (wider) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 18, 2018 From 1977 until 1980, Studio 54 was the place to be in New York City. A lavish nightclub that hosted plenty of celebrity regulars, the place was infamous for the free-for-all atmosphere it created and allowed. For Studio 54, director Matt Tyrnauer interviews various people who worked on or at the club, including one man who re-designed the balcony with a rubber floor, so that it could cleaned more easily. Did he know he was creating a "sex pit"? Of course he did. The club was also notorious because it served as a money machine for its owners, Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell. Their side of the story is primarily told by Schrager (Rubell died in 1989, although he appears in some interviews here), who promises openness and honesty but mostly gives us the legend of the club, as well as some equivocation about the criminal activities that sent himself and his business partner to prison for tax evasion. There was a fantastic party at Studio 54 the night before the two went away—that much we learn for sure. Through archival footage and photographs, Tyrnauer provides a fine notion of the club's public face, littered with famous folks and desired by throngs of people waiting outside to get a taste of the limelight. Schrager and Rubell's vision was unique in the heyday of the discotheque. They saw it as a kind of theater, in which everyone in the club played some role every night, and built it with that in mind (They hired theater designers, not only for the concept but also so that the club could be built as quickly as possible). Like so many tales of show business, though, the movie focuses on the bright lights, the familiar faces, and the diversely eccentric personalities that everyone saw. So much else—the sex, the drugs, the skimming money from the business—is mentioned and then glossed over, in order to make way for more tales of extravagance and strangeness. While it provides a succinct and straightforward history lesson, with some observations about how the club's existence and ultimate failure reflected the culture, Studio 54 never quite moves past the glitz and the glamour. The main takeaway is that the club and its era were fun while they lasted, which, obviously, isn't saying too much about either. Copyright © 2018 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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